The Greek drama is nearing a climax.
| Alan Murray | |
| @alansmurray | |
| alan.murray@fortune.com |
With a critical debt payment eight days away and its banks bleeding money, Greece offered new budget concessions – including raising the retirement age and increasing the value added tax. EU officials welcomed the proposals as a “good basis for progress” and markets rose.
Our man Geoffrey Smith will be watching today’s critical events, and filing regularly to a live blog, so stay tuned here for updates. If you suspect a Greek exit from the European currency might not be all bad, read what Fortune’s Shawn Tully has to say here.
Separately, Taylor Swift penned a letter on her Tumblr blog yesterday entitled “To Apple, Love Taylor,” saying she was going to withhold her album 1989 from Apple’s new streaming service because of the company’s plan not to pay artists during the three month free trial period. “We don’t ask you for free iPhones,” she wrote.
By Sunday evening, Apple had caved. Apple’s Eddy Cue went on Twitter to announce the change, saying: “We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple.”
Maybe Tsispras needs to change his negotiating tactics?
Enjoy the day.
Top News
• Taylor Swift vs Apple
Fortune's decision to name Taylor Swift as one of the world's 50 greatest leaders earlier this year is looking pretty good at the moment. The pop star penned an open letter complaining about Apple's new streaming service, and less than 24 hours later, Apple said it would pay artists during a trial period (after originally planning to not pay royalties during the free three-month trial period). If that isn't powerful, we don't know what is. Fortune
• Cigna rebuffs Anthem merger
Health insurer Cigna has said Anthem's $47 billion merger proposal was not in the best interest of shareholders, citing various concerns including worries about corporate governance and a data breach Anthem experienced earlier this year. Cigna said it had serious questions about governance, as Anthem's Joseph Swedish would assume four roles of the combined company: chairman, CEO, president and head of integration. Reuters
• Williams Cos. rejects buyout offer
Takeover targets are certainly getting persnickety about potential deals. Williams Cos. over the weekend said it rejected a buyout offer worth $48 billion, which was later revealed to be made by Energy Transfer Equity L.P. Energy Transfer, which was offering an all-equity bid for Williams, said it had tried to engage for six months in friendly dialogue with Williams's management but had been ignored. WSJ (subscription required)
• Some optimism for Greece deal
A wave of optimism that Greece and international creditors will strike a last-minute deal that will see Athens avert default has lifted global stocks, the euro and peripheral euro zone bonds on Monday. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is attending a few well-watched meetings with key European leaders and organizations including the International Monetary Fund, a process Fortune is monitoring with a live blog found here. "The most likely outcome, with a 75 percent probability, is a deal," Credit Suisse analysts said. Reuters
Around the Water Cooler
• Google's hard choices
Google is in a bit of a global censorship predicament. The search giant has in the past met censorship demands by various countries by offering a local workaround. But some judges want the company to remove search listings worldwide, a more problematic trend for Google to confront. Censorship cases in France and Canada suggest more serious global implications could be on the horizon. Fortune
• When bankers misbehave
A study has found that U.K. financial-services employees are more likely to behave unethically when under pressure to reach tough performance targets. Managers in banking, insurance and wealth management were more anxious and inclined to misbehave when negative consequences or punishment for poor performance were highlighted, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the London Business School. Bloomberg
• CEO pay tops the 0.1% of earners
Chief executives are an elite group of individuals -- and also a very highly compensated group. A new report from left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute found that CEO compensation in 2013 was almost six times higher than others in the top 0.1% of earners. And last year, U.S. CEOs made 303 times as much as the average worker ($16.3 million on average for the largest firms, an increase of 54.3% since the end of the financial crisis in 2009). USA Today
• What's next for Fitbit
Fitbit is promising that not much will change for the wearable tech firm after a successful initial public offering last week, but there are certainly a number of questions that still loom large enough to send executives' pulses racing. One big worry: a market study found a third of activity monitor owners quit using fitness devices within the first six months of purchase. Can Fitbit count on those users coming back for an upgrade if they weren't using the original device that they purchased? Fortune
Five things to know in the week ahead
Emergency Greece talks and Nike's earnings. Here are five things to know in the week ahead. Today's story can be found here.
