Top Financial Media Stories Monday, September 19: Apple iPhone 14's Glitch With Some Third Party Apps, Tesla Wants To Double Sales In Germany, Ford Working On Smartphone Based Crash Detection Tech And More..

Reuters

Volkswagen Eyes Juicy Valuations For Porsche IPO

• Volkswagen AG VWAGY targeted a valuation of up to €75 billion ($75.1 billion) for luxury sportscar maker Porsche.
• Volkswagen will split shares equally into preferred and ordinary shares. Trading will begin on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on September 29.
• The sovereign wealth funds of Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Norway and mutual fund company T. Rowe Price will subscribe as cornerstone investors.
• Volkswagen will propose to pay 49% of the total proceeds to shareholders in early 2023 as a special dividend.

Teva To Start Nationwide Settlement Of Opioid Lawsuits From Next Year

• Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd's TEVA CEO said the company will finalize the U.S. opioid settlement by the end of 2022 and start paying in 2023.
• CEO Kare Schultz also said he was unlikely to renew his contract next year.
• In its Q2 earnings release, Teva proposed a $4.35 billion settlement - mostly cash and partly medicines over 13 years - to resolve its opioid lawsuits.

Activist Investor Fund Starboard Procures Stake In Wix

• Starboard Value LP disclosed a 9% stake in the website development platform Wix.com Ltd WIX.
• Starboard had been building the stake and spoke to Wix about how it could improve operations.
• Wix battled losses since the fourth quarter of 2021 amid a slowdown in e-commerce.
• Starboard supports Wix's bid to become profitable and believes the company has a significant opportunity to improve its margins and grow further.

Financial Times

PayPal Calls To End Ties With NBA's Phoenix Suns

• PayPal Holdings, Inc PYPL threatened to scrap its sponsorship of the National Basketball Association's Phoenix Suns lest the racist and misogynistic team's owner retains control of the franchise despite the suspension.
• Robert Sarver, the team's owner since 2004, used the N-word on multiple occasions and fostered a culture of bullying and discrimination against female employees.
• The NBA suspended Sarver for a year and issued a fine of $10 million.
• PayPal sought disciplinary action beyond the one-year suspension.

Wall Street Journal

Pentagon Makes Efforts To Lower Dependency On Chinese Material Supplies

• Pentagon's executives and department officials are intensifying efforts to cut U.S. defense companies' ties with the global supply chain from China.
• As per the report, the Defense Department is using artificial intelligence to develop the technique to analyze whether aircraft equipment, electronics, and raw materials used by U.S. military contractors originate in China and other potential opponents.

Bloomberg

Moderna Provides Vaccine For Preclinical Studies As WHO Tries Developing Its Own COVID-19 Shot

• Moderna Inc's MRNA COVID-19 vaccine would be used in a World Health Organization effort to develop mRNA shots to increase production and access for developing countries.
• Moderna didn't supply the vaccine directly. It allowed the vaccine to be provided by the French government after a request from the United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool.

SoftBank-Backed Indian Startup OYO Revives IPO Plan

• SoftBank Group Corp SFTBF SFTBY backed Indian startup OYO Hotels is planning a stock market debut after a travel recovery-induced cost cut and loss reduction.
• The hotel-booking company aims for an initial public offering in early 2023.
• OYO had filed preliminary IPO documents in 2021 but shelved the listing plan earlier this year as COVID-19 hurt its growth and forced the company to cut jobs.

Alibaba Competitor Braces To Terminate 3% Of Cash Burning E-commerce Arm Staff In Indonesia

• Global hit game Free Fire developer Sea Limited SE is prepared to oust 3% of Shopee employees in Indonesia, as planned to curb losses and win back investors.
• Sea reported a nearly $1 billion quarterly loss in April-June.

After Uber Breach, Hackers Go After This US Gaming Company's Ace Game

• A hacker has published authentic, pre-release footage from the development of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's TTWO Grand Theft Auto VI.
• The footage provides an early and unpolished view of Grand Theft Auto VI plans, though the final version looks much more refined.
• Over the weekend, the hacker posted dozens of never-before-seen videos from Grand Theft Auto VI on an online message board. The person on the forum suggested they were the hacker who compromised Uber Technologies, Inc UBER in a high-profile incident last week.

Benzinga

Elon Musk's Starship Launch To Cost Just $10 Per Kg: How It Compares With 'Heavy Lifters' From 5 Decades Ago

• The Elon Musk-owned SpaceX's Starship is a launch vehicle the company is developing and testing for orbital launch and for transporting humans and cargo beyond Earth.
• Science, a peer-reviewed academic journal, on Sunday shared on Twitter a graphic showing the height, payload capacity, and inflation-adjusted cost per kilogram of some launch vehicles dating back to 1967.
• The caption read, "Starship will be the biggest rocket ever. Are space scientists ready to take advantage of it?"

Some iPhone 14 Users Are Getting This 'Shaking' Glitch While Using TikTok Or Snapchat

• Users of Apple Inc's AAPL iPhone 14 are flagging an issue with third-party apps such as TikTok and the smartphone's new camera technology.
• The issue affects third-party apps such as TikTok, Meta Platforms Inc's META Instagram, and Snap Inc's SNAP Snapchat applications.

Elon Musk's SpaceX Launches 54 More Starlink Satellites: 'Meant For Peaceful Use Only'

• Elon Musk-led SpaceX finally launched its Falcon 9 reusable rocket with 54 Starlink satellites, following several weather-induced cancellations last week.
• The private aerospace company launched the Starlink satellites on Sunday night from the Florida Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
• About nine minutes after the launch, the Falcon 9's first-stage booster landed on the 'Just Read The Instructions drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Ford Tries New Crash Risk Alert - Read How This Smartphone-Based Technology Could Help

• Ford Motor Co F is working on a new smartphone-based communications technology to help warn drivers of pedestrians, bicyclists, and those approaching a vehicle's path but blocked from a driver's view.
• The concept smartphone app on a pedestrian's phone uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) messaging to communicate their location to a connected Ford vehicle.
• If the vehicle calculates a potential crash risk, Ford SYNC can alert drivers by the in-vehicle screen showing graphics of pedestrians, bicyclists, or more with audio alerts.

Chinese Health Official Says Don't Touch Foreigners To Avoid Monkeypox, Draws Flak On Social Media

• A Chinese health official has advised residents to stay away from foreigners to prevent the spread of monkeypox infection after the country discovered its first known case of the virus.
• On his official Weibo page, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that people should avoid "skin-to-skin contact with foreigners."
• The chief epidemiologist's post was widely shared across social media in mainland China over the weekend and faced massive backlash. Wu also had to disable the comments section on Sunday's initial post.

Tesla Eyes Doubling 2022 Germany Sales To 80,000 EVs

• Tesla Inc TSLA is reportedly turbocharging its car sales target in Germany this year, as the Elon Musk-led electric vehicle maker aims to surpass other auto behemoths such as Volkswagen (OTC: VWAGY) and Toyota TM in the European country.
• "Our goal is to double sales every year so that we would be around 80,000 units by 2022," a Tesla Giga Berlin manager said, as reported by German publication Automobilwoche.