Nike donates face shields and respirator lenses to three Boston hospitals

Nike donates face shields and respirator lenses to 3 Boston hospitals

Nike Inc. has given thousands of face shields and powered air-purifying respirator lenses to three Boston hospitals: Boston Medical Center, Mass. General, and Carney Hospital. The equipment was produced at Nike’s facilities in Oregon and Missouri, and the donations were arranged through the team at the Converse headquarters in Boston and the local medical community. Nike, Converse’s parent company, has given more than $17 million to COVID-19 efforts around the globe, including $500,000 to the Boston Resiliency Fund. And Converse is supporting other efforts, including shoe donations to hospitals such as Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to enable health care workers to change footwear before heading home. — JON CHESTO

PANDEMIC

Analog Devices donating $4.5m to virus relief efforts

Analog Devices that it is contributing at least $4.5 million to COVID-19 relief efforts around the world. The contributions include a $4 million donation to a pandemic response fund run by the Word Health Organization, and $500,000 to Mass. General for vaccine and treatment research. “We can’t think of a better effort to support with our foundation at this point and time,” said Vincent Roche, chief executive of the Norwood-based chip maker. — JON CHESTO

E-COMMERCE

Wayfair has a new chief technology officer

Wayfair, the Boston-based online home furnishings retailer, has named Jim Miller its chief technology officer. Miller had held the position on an interim basis since August 2019; he took over for John Mulliken, who stepped down last year. (Mulliken now works for Indigo as chief product officer.) Before joining Wayfair to become interim chief technology officer, Miller was chief executive of Arevo and he also spent many years as an executive at Google. Miller, who is based in Silicon Valley, has been on Wayfair’s board of directors for four years, but will relinquish that role now that he has been appointed chief technology officer. — JON CHESTO

AVIATION

Virgin Australia seeks bankruptcy protection

Virgin Australia, the nation’s second-largest airline, announced Tuesday it was seeking bankruptcy protection after a debt crisis worsened by the coronavirus shutdown pushed it into insolvency. Virgin said in a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that it had appointed a team of Deloitte administrators to “recapitalize the business and help ensure it emerges in a stronger financial position on the other side of the COVID-19 crisis.” Virgin is one of the first major airlines to seek bankruptcy protection in response to the pandemic. Billionaire owner Richard Branson has asked the British government for a loan to prop up Virgin Atlantic, which his Virgin Group owns jointly with Delta. He is reportedly asking for $3.2 billion. He has said he was willing to put up the private island where he lives in the British Virgin Islands as collateral for the loan. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEVERAGES

Far fewer wanted to buy the world a Coke in April

Coca-Cola’s global volume tumbled 25 percent in April as the coronavirus pandemic gripped large swaths of the world population. Those volumes made up of bottled drinks and the syrups Coke sells to theaters, restaurants, stadiums, and music venues were humming early in the year, revealing how fast the virus hobbled human activity and commerce, from mom-and-pop shops to global operators like Coca-Cola Co. Volume was up 3 percent through February excluding China, and Coke was on track to reach and possibly exceed its financial targets. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

CONSERVATION

Amazon to contribute $10m to aid forests in the Northeast

Amazon.com said it will contribute $10 million to help conserve forests in the northeastern United States in an effort capture planet-warming carbon dioxide. The Seattle-based company on Tuesday said the grant will make it the largest contributor to two relatively new programs overseen by the Nature Conservancy, the American Forest Foundation, and the Vermont Land Trust, which are designed to encourage sustainable forestry practices among smaller forest owners and connect those people to carbon credit markets. In exchange, owners agree to take steps like limit harvesting of trees over a 20-year period or deploy other forestry practices designed to encourage healthy tree growth. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

INTERNATIONAL

Oktoberfest cancelled because of pandemic

Munich’s famed Oktoberfest folk and beer festival is being canceled this year, the latest major event to fall victim to the coronavirus outbreak. “We agreed that the risk is simply too great,” Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder said at a news conference Tuesday. Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter said the event — this year due to take place between Sept. 19 and Oct. 4 — brings in around $1.3 billion for local businesses and that hotels, restaurants, and taxi drivers would especially suffer. The Oktoberfest, first celebrated in 1810, is one of the world’s biggest folk festivals and draws around 6 million visitors each year. Germany has banned large public gatherings until at least the end of August. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

AUTOMOTIVE

Subaru recalling more than 200,000 vehicles

Subaru is recalling just over 200,000 cars and SUVs in the US and Canada because fuel pumps can fail and cause engines to stall. The recall covers certain 2019 Impreza, Outback, Legacy, and Ascent vehicles. Subaru says in government documents that the low pressure fuel pump can fail. Engines could lose power while the vehicles are being driven. The engines also might not start or they could run rough. The documents say Subaru has no reports of crashes or injuries. Dealers will replace the low pressure fuel pump at no cost to owners starting June 5. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

BUSINESS SOFTWARE

SAP co-chief executive leaves after six months

SAP co-chief executive Jennifer Morgan is leaving her job only six months after becoming the first female CEO of a company on Germany’s DAX index of blue-chip stocks, the business software maker said Tuesday. Christian Klein, the other half of the leadership tandem that was appointed in October, will continue as sole CEO, the company said. A statement added that Morgan “mutually agreed with the supervisory board” that she will leave SAP effective April 30. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

WORKPLACE

French dentist must pay damages to former assistant

A dentist was ordered by France’s top court to pay damages for sexually abusing a female assistant after the man was cleared of related criminal charges. In a milestone ruling last month, the Cour de Cassation said the bar is lower for proving harassment in civil lawsuits than in criminal cases, where intent is key. The judges said the dental assistant was entitled to unfair-dismissal damages after complaining about her boss’s inappropriate language. The ruling creates a clearer path for victims of abuse to seek compensation. While sexual harassment is seen to be widespread in France — affecting as many as a third of women according to an Ifop poll two years ago — it has historically led to few criminal convictions. — BLOOMBERG NEWS