Carlos Ghosn says he's the victim of a conspiracy by 'backstabbing' Nissan execs - CNN

"This is about a plot, this is about conspiracy, this is about backstabbing," Ghosn said in the seven-minute video, which was recorded before he was arrested last week in Japan for a fourth time.

Ghosn, who once led a global autos alliance that consisted of Renault (RNLSY), Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, claimed in the video that fears over a merger had prompted a revolt at Nissan and led to his ouster.

Neither Ghosn nor his lawyer, Junichiro Hironaka, offered a response to the latest allegations of financial misconduct that prompted the auto executive's arrest and return to jail.

Nissan declined to comment on the video.

Japanese prosecutors accused Ghosn last week of siphoning off $5 million in payments made by Nissan (NSANF) to a dealer that he controlled.

Ghosn is awaiting trial on separate charges that he understated his income for years and abused his position by transferring personal investment losses to Nissan. He has denied those charges.

"Unless Ghosn can offer evidence showing he did not steal from Nissan, his position is untenable," said Stephen Givens, who has been practicing law in Japan for more than 30 years.

"If the facts are as suggested, this is devastating for Ghosn," added Givens.

Hironaka told reporters that he would file a special appeal to Japan's Supreme Court on Wednesday, arguing that there was no reason for Ghosn's rearrest.

Ghosn is now back at the Tokyo jail where he was held for 108 days until he posted $9 million bail in March. Prosecutors can hold Ghosn until April 24, after which they must indict or release him.

His arrest and detention has led to scrutiny of Japan's judicial system, which allows suspects to be questioned without a lawyer. Prosecutors in Japan also boast an extremely high conviction rate.

Hironaka criticized the treatment of Ghosn on Tuesday, saying the morning raid that preceded his latest arrest was "inhumane."

Lawyers, including former public prosecutors, say that complaints of human rights abuse will do little to aid Ghosn's defense when his trial begins later this year.

Renault unveiled new allegations against Ghosn last week, claiming that expenses incurred by its former CEO and chairman involved "questionable and concealed practices" that violated its ethics rules.

The French carmaker also announced Ghosn's resignation from its board.

Asked Tuesday whether Ghosn had any regrets about the nearly 20 years he spent leading Nissan, Hironaka said:

"He's saying it is a conspiracy. He doesn't think there is anything to regret."

Nissan cut its last remaining ties with Ghosn on Monday when shareholders voted to oust him from the board.

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/09/business/carlos-ghosn-video-nissan/index.html

2019-04-09 10:01:00Z
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Tariffs Hit Appliance Shoppers, Manufacturers In Different Ways - NPR

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Washing machines, dryers and other appliances are seen for sale at a Lowe's home improvement store in Washington, D.C., Sept. 27, 2018. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

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It was a daunting task. Amid a major renovation, Jani Mussetter needed a lot of appliances: a washer, dryer, refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher and stove. As she visited showrooms in January, a stressful thing kept coming up: warnings of a price increase on Feb. 1.

For Mussetter, shopping for higher end appliances, that potentially meant paying hundreds of dollars more. And why? "They said, because of all the tariffs," the San Francisco resident says.

Tariffs and the trade war have been in the news for more than a year, since President Trump began imposing higher taxes on various imported products and materials.

For regular American shoppers, major household appliances perfectly illustrate the complicated reality of the trade dispute. One tariff was a boon to some domestic manufacturers. But other tariffs hiked costs for the entire industry worldwide. Prices on appliances are now slowly recovering from their biggest increase in about five years.

Whirlpool's gamble

Whirlpool, a leading American appliance maker, is at the heart of the issue. Its prices had barely changed for many years, says G.research housing analyst Alvaro Lacayo. Then, in 2018, he says, "you saw a big tick upward."

At first, higher prices were welcome news for Whirlpool. They reflected the company's victory over its two main foreign competitors, South Korea's LG and Samsung.

Whirlpool — which also own Maytag, Jenn-Air and other brands — had spent years arguing that LG and Samsung had been "dumping appliances into the U.S. market at below cost, rendering competition irrational," as Lacayo put it.

In January 2018, President Trump agreed with Whirlpool. He set a new tariff, or tax, on imported washing machines, starting at 20 percent. So, selling washers to Americans became more expensive for foreign companies. And domestic manufacturers like Whirlpool could finally raise prices.

But then, Trump imposed more tariffs, on metals including aluminum and steel. Steel, in particular, is critical to building almost any appliance.

Suddenly, appliance makers everywhere, including Whirlpool, began complaining about the rising cost of raw materials. They had little choice but to start raising their own prices.

"Global steel costs have risen substantially and, particularly in the U.S., they have reached unexplainable levels," Whirlpool CEO Marc Bitzer said during an analyst call in July 2018.

What happens next

Steve Sheinkopf owns Yale Appliance & Lighting in the Boston area, and he's a third-generation owner. "We have been here for almost 100 years now, it's hard to believe," he says.

Many brands Sheinkopf works with — like Wisconsin-based Sub-Zero and Wolf or Germany's Thermador — regularly inch up their prices, he says, but the increases in the past year have been bigger than most.

Sheinkopf predicts that appliance prices are probably stabilized at this point, at least for a while. But for shoppers who chase sales and specials, he says, promotions haven't been as good as they used to be three to four years ago.

Overall, prices of major appliances tracked by the consumer price index are starting to tick down month-to-month. But they are still higher than they were last year.

"On certain products, you could be looking at a 14- to 16-percent increase from last year to this year," Sheinkopf says. "When you talk about [washing] machines that people want to buy, front-loaders, I think you're looking at $200 to $400 difference versus last year."

Many companies stretched some of the price increases into early 2019, still citing high costs of raw materials as well as changes in the currency market and labor costs. That's what Mussetter experienced as she rushed to buy appliances for her remodel before Feb. 1.

"I'd be really bummed if I was walking in today," she says with a laugh. Mussetter did manage to buy all her appliances ahead of the price jump. Later, she learned this saved her $1,250.

And one other thing happened last year, Whirlpool's Korean competitors, LG and Samsung, fast-tracked new manufacturing plants — in America. It's great news for American jobs. But for Whirlpool?

"I think this is the biggest challenge they'll ever have," Sheinkopf says.

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https://www.npr.org/2019/04/09/711001915/tariffs-complex-ripple-effects-hit-appliance-shoppers-and-makers

2019-04-09 09:03:00Z
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Former Ocean Resort owner Bruce Deifik dies in car crash after Colorado Rockies game - Press of Atlantic City

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1. Former Ocean Resort owner Bruce Deifik dies in car crash after Colorado Rockies game  Press of Atlantic City
2. Developer, former casino owner Deifik dies in crash driving home from Rockies game  FOX 31 Denver
3. Bruce Deifik, developer who reopened Ocean Resort Casino in Atlantic City, dies in Colorado car wreck  NJ.com
4. Bruce Deifik, former owner of Ocean Resort Casino, reported dead in Colorado  Philly.com
5. Former Ocean Resort owner Bruce Deifik dies in crash after Colorado Rockies game  Press of Atlantic City
6. View full coverage on Google News

https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/casinos_tourism/former-ocean-resort-owner-bruce-deifik-dies-in-colorado/article_4a3b4f9b-7e9d-5508-b60e-f05dcdc0c3e7.html

2019-04-08 15:15:00Z
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Tesla sells European emissions law lifeline to Fiat Chrysler - Ars Technica

Enlarge / The ultimate compliance car? Sergio Marchionne, the late CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, had said that the company lost either $14,000, or $20,000, on every Fiat 500e, depending who you believe.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles

Over the weekend, the Financial Times reported that Tesla and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) have entered into an agreement that will deliver Tesla a fresh influx of cash and deliver FCA from the hands of Europe's tough new emissions regulations. Beginning next year, new European Commission rules begin to phase in that require a car maker's fleet-wide emissions to average no higher than 95g/CO₂/km—a figure that works out at roughly 57mpg for gasoline vehicles, or 76mpg for diesel-powered vehicles.

From 2020, 95 percent of an automaker's new cars sold in the EU have to meet this target, with the remaining 5 percent falling under the law in 2021. And the penalties for failing are draconian: a €95 ($107) "excess emissions premium" per gram of CO₂ over the target, for every single car registered in the EU that year. For some OEMs, this has the potential to be ruinous; if FCA's portfolio were the same in 2021 as it was in 2018, the automaker would have to pay some €2.77 billion ($3.12 billion), out of total net global profits of €3.63 billion ($4.1 billion).

Some OEMs are going all-out in their efforts to electrify in order to meet the new rules; VW's Roadmap E should be viewed in this context, for example. But for others, the road to electrification is not so simple. Although FCA announced a bold, €9 billion ($10.5 billion) plan to electrify its lineup by 2022, its actual plug-in portfolio is currently limited to the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid (which is not sold in the EU) and the Fiat 500e, a car thought to lose the brand many thousands of dollars for each one sold.

Although the exact financial terms of the deal are unknown, the FT says it the agreement is in the range of "hundreds of millions of euros." Interestingly, the FT also reports that Tesla had extended the offer to other OEMs to join this emissions pool but that none had accepted by the March 25th deadline. For Tesla, this will no doubt be a welcome financial lifeline. Each of Tesla's four profitable quarters since the company was founded in 2003 have depended heavily upon the sale of Zero Emissions Credits in California. Although the company has yet to release its results for Q1 2019, we do know that it suffered a precipitous drop in sales during the first three months of the year, particularly among the high-margin Model S and Model X electric cars.

Furthermore, the company has had to dip into its cash reserves to meet a hefty $920 million bond payment, with more debt coming due soon. And if that wasn't enough, the company needs to develop and then build the Model Y electric crossover, which will require heavy investment in capital expenditures. (This kind of spending has fallen heavily of late as Tesla has slashed its budget wherever it can in an attempt to improve its financial performance for the market.)

However, it's unlikely to be a long-term panacea; at some point, FCA's electrification has to happen (or it has to withdraw from selling vehicles in the EU). In the meantime, it now needs Tesla to sell as many EVs in Europe as it possibly can.

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https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/04/tesla-sells-european-emissions-law-lifeline-to-fiat-chrysler/

2019-04-08 14:23:00Z
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Here's who will get rich from Pinterest's IPO - CNBC

Pinterest is seeking a valuation of up to $9 billion when it debuts on the public market this spring, which will rake in hundreds of millions for each of its founders and other major stakeholders. Pinterest's valuation was said to be $12 billion nearly two years ago when it raised its last round of funding.

The company plans to sell 75 million Class A shares at $15 to $17 per share when it starts trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "PINS," according to a regulatory filing. Pinterest will use a dual-class structure to concentrate voting power among major stakeholders including co-founders Benjamin Silbermann and Evan Sharp. These stakeholders will own Class B shares.

Lyft similarly debuted with a dual-class structure when it hit the public market earlier this month. But unlike Lyft, whose founders are the sole owners of Class B shares, other major stakeholders in Pinterest like Andreessen Horowitz and FirstMark will also own this class of stock.

Pinterest is still on the early end of a wave of large tech IPOs anticipated this year. Uber and Slack are among some of the biggest public debuts expected to hit the public market as well.

Here's what each of Pinterest's major stakeholders stand to hold after its public offering, based on their post-IPO share counts and assuming the stock prices at the midpoint of its stated range at $16 per share:

Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.

Watch: Pinterest sets its IPO price range at $15 to $17

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/08/pinterest-ipo-the-largest-shareholders.html

2019-04-08 13:30:15Z
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GE stock may be poised to crash more than 50% - Yahoo Finance

Tough start to the week for beleaguered General Electric (GE).

GE’s stock plunged as much as 6% in pre-market trading Monday as influential JPMorgan analyst — and long-time GE critic — Stephen Tusa slashed his rating on the stock to Underperform. It was back in December that Tusa surprisingly lifted his rating. Tusa dropped his price target on GE’s stock by a $1 to $5, suggesting it could crater by more than 50% from current levels.

Tusa returned to the well in his focus on GE’s pressured cash position in his latest attack. The analyst thinks Wall Street is “significantly over projecting” the bounce in free cash flow in coming years. Underperforming legacy assets in insurance and power are likely to weigh on the cash flow output of the business, Tusa contends.

Tusa isn’t alone in taking a bearish stance on a stock that has magically gained 55% from the December lows on hopes new CEO Larry Culp could stabilize the business this year and deliver a turnaround by 2020.

“This time around, we find it extraordinary that some analysts are suggesting that a potential GE free cash flow loss of up to $4 billion this quarter (vs. a loss of $1.7 billion in 1Q18) would be ‘fair’ or ‘expected,’” said Gordon Haskett analyst and longtime GE critic John Inch in a note Monday. “We believe that magnitude of cash loss could be both highly problematic and poorly received by the bond market and debt ratings agencies. It would also result in GE incrementally drawing on its revolver, and rising Debt/EBITDA – which would not be moving the debt needle in the right direction.”

Inch maintained his Underperform rating and $7 price target on GE’s stock. GE will announce its first quarter earnings later this month.

GE said 2019 will be a ‘reset year’

Culp continues to pull no punches in his comments on turning the company around, telling Wall Street at an investor day in March that 2019 will be a “reset year” and that GE’s challenges are “complex.” Chief Financial Officer Jamie Miller told Yahoo Finance that Culp is looking at GE through a “reality-based lens,” counter to many other top executives at the company over the years.

Investors appear to have forgotten those realities, and they are plentiful. For example, GE sees first quarter earnings down “significantly” as it works through issues at its power and GE Capital businesses.

However, some analysts like Tusa and Inch have surely not forgotten those realities.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @BrianSozzi

Read more:

• General Electric still looks like a colossal mess

• GE is one of the most complicated companies in Corporate America

• Is General Electric ridiculously overvalued?

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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ge-stock-may-be-poised-to-crash-more-than-50-123144108.html

2019-04-08 12:31:00Z
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Pinterest seeks $15-$17 per share in IPO, below last private valuation - Investing.com

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A Pinterest banner hangs on the facade of the NYSE in New York

(Reuters) - Pinterest (NYSE:) Inc on Monday set a price range of $15 to $17 per share for its initial public offering of 75 million shares, valuing it below the $12 billion at which the online image-search company sourced its last fundraising in 2017.

At the upper end of its target range, the company could have a market valuation of about $11.30 billion and could raise $1.3 billion in net proceeds, taking into account restricted stock units and options.

Reuters had reported in January Pinterest, which plans to list under the symbol "PINS" on the New York Stock Exchange, could raise around $1.5 billion and that the IPO was likely to come in the first six months of 2019.

The company, which owns the image search website known for the food and fashion photos that its users post, reported annual revenue of $755.9 million in 2018, up 60 percent from a year earlier.

But it remains unprofitable even though its net loss narrowed to $62.97 million in 2018 from $130 million a year earlier.

The company will go public with a dual-class share structure to concentrate voting power with Class B shareholders, which included Co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Silbermann, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Pinterest would join a bevy of high-profile companies that went public, including Lyft Inc (NASDAQ:) and Levi Strauss (NYSE:).

Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc is also expected to kick off its IPO this month, according to sources.

Profitability has been a key theme for companies that have gone public since the start of the year. Lyft's shares slipped below their IPO price on the second day after its debut as analysts did not see a clear path to profitability.

IPOs of Pinterest and other such loss-making unicorns have presented a predicament for investors sitting on the fence since they do not want to miss out on popular companies with fast growth, but at the same time have to weigh the risks of businesses with unproven economics.

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https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/pinterest-sets-ipo-price-range-between-1517-per-share-1829878

2019-04-08 12:06:00Z
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