Good morning.
This is tech week in Europe, with CEOs including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, SAP’s Bill McDermott, Intel’s Brian Krzanich, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi and Accenture’s Pierre Nanterme all joining French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday at his “Tech for Good” summit. While Macron is pushing to make France a tech-forward nation, he emphasized yesterday that “there is no free lunch,” asking not only for commitments on data privacy, but also that the executives do more to tackle issues like inequality and climate change.
Speaking this morning at the Paris Vivatech summit, IBM’s Ginni Rometty threw some shade Zuckerberg’s way, referring to the “techlash” against the search and social giants, and calling on companies to handle data “responsibly and transparently.” “More than ever,” she said, “the tech industry must ensure the technology it creates is trusted, and tech companies must establish principles and make investments to sustain that trust. Society will decide who it trusts.”
The topic of jobs also was on the table. McKinsey Global Institute released a study this morning, timed for the event, that attempts to quantify the coming job shift. Jobs requiring technology skills will increase 60% by 2030, the study estimated, while jobs based on physical and manual skills, or “basic cognitive skills”—such as data entry and customer service—will decrease by more than 10%. But the study also sees strong job growth (up 9%) in areas that require higher cognitive skills—analysts, project managers, creative directors, etc—and even stronger growth (up 26%) in areas requiring social and emotional skills—negotiation, leadership, entrepreneurship, teaching and training. You can find the full study here.
Also out this morning, from the new issue of Fortune magazine:
— Geoff Colvin’s searing dissection of GE’s meltdown
— How a potentially dangerous compound used to make Teflon got Chemours in a sticky situation
— How JPMorgan Chase learned to stop worrying and love the blockchain
More news below, including Elon Musk’s latest Twitter rage.
| Alan Murray | |
| @alansmurray | |
| alan.murray@fortune.com |
Top News
Auto Tariffs
The Trump administration may impose new tariffs on car imports, using national security laws as the justification (as was the case with President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs.) "There is evidence suggesting that, for decades, imports from abroad have eroded our domestic auto industry," said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. So now foreign carmakers' stocks are tumbling, and it's far from clear that the U.S. auto industry wants this anyway. "The U.S. auto industry is thriving and growing. Thirteen, soon to be 14 companies, produced nearly 12 million cars and trucks in America last year. To our knowledge, no one is asking for this protection," said Global Automakers CEO John Bozzella. Fortune
Comcast vs. Disney
Comcast's counteroffer to Disney's bid for 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets is real and imminent. Comcast says it is "considering, and is in advanced stages of preparing, an offer for the business that Fox has agreed to sell Disney…Any offer for Fox would be all-cash and at a premium to the value of the current all-share offer from Disney." According to the BBC, it's unlikely that Comcast will move until a judge rules on the U.S. government's suit to block the Time Warner-AT&T merger. BBC
Netflix Value
Speaking of Comcast, Netflix is now more valuable than it. With Comcast's Fox news taking the company's price down by around 2% yesterday, and Netflix gaining 4%, the streaming service ended up with a market cap of $149 billion, to Comcast's $147 billion. Netflix is now pretty close to overtaking Disney, too—Disney is worth $153 billion. Netflix's stock price has soared 70% since the January. Fortune
Deutsche Bank
With management under great pressure over falling revenues and share value, Deutsche Bank has announced the loss of at least 7,000 jobs. The bank's equities sales and trading business will be particularly hard-hit, slashed by a quarter. Will it save chairman Paul Achleitner? Let's see—he faces a no-confidence vote at today's annual general meeting. But with the backing of major investors such as the Qatari royal family, he should be safe. CNBC
Around the Water Cooler
Musky Media
Tesla CEO Elon Musk doesn't like how the media has reported on his cars' accidents, so he's unveiled plans to create a Yelp-esque site where people can rate the credibility of news organizations and their journalists. He intends to name it after the Soviet propaganda rag Pravda ("Truth"). Actually, he already has—a tech writer (naturally) spotted last year that Musk had set up a company called Pravda Corp, and had been wondering what that was all about. Gizmodo
Trump Blocks Trumped
A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that President Trump cannot block people on Twitter, as he is wont to do. According to Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, who's handling the suit against the president, his Twitter feed is a public forum and blocking people from viewing it and replying to him is a First Amendment violation. If her ruling holds, it will have implications for public officials across the U.S. New York Times
Sina Listing
The Chinese web giant Sina Corp, already listed on the Nasdaq, is working on a second listing in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange's operator recently changed its rules to allow Chinese companies listed in New York or London to list in Hong Kong while retaining their existing weighted voting rights structures. Sina, which owns 46% of Weibo, is likely to float in Hong Kong in the fourth quarter. South China Morning Post
Rusal Resignations
The CEO of Russian metals giant Rusal has resigned, along with seven of the firm's directors. With Alexandra Bouriko out, Evgeny Nikitin, the former head of the company's aluminum division, is now acting chief executive. Rusal is warning that it might be unable to repay its debts, thanks to U.S. sanctions that also threaten its metals production and sales. Also thanks to the U.S., sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska last month gave up his control of Rusal. Financial Times
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer. Find previous editions here, and sign up for other Fortune newsletters here.
