Catch up on the weekend’s top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly:
1. A federal judge ruled that Apple (AAPL) did not need to reinstate the popular video game Fortnite in its App Store, in a blow to Fortnite’s parent company, Epic Games, which is locked in an antitrust battle with the tech giant over its app store fees and rules, The New York Times’ Erin Griffith reported. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Northern District of California said in her ruling that Apple’s ban of the game could continue because Epic had violated its contract with Apple. There is “significant public interest” in requiring companies to adhere to contracts or resolve disputes through the normal course, she wrote.
2. The National Football League said in a statement that, “The Denver Broncos at New England Patriots game scheduled for Monday, October 12 at 5:00 p.m. ET has been postponed.” The game is being moved to next Sunday after the Patriots had one new positive test for the coronavirus Sunday morning, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Meanwhile, and due to coronavirus outbreaks with the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots, the National Football League also made schedule changes for eight teams. Publicly traded companies in the gambling space include Boyd Gaming (BYD), Caesars (CZR), Churchill Downs (CHDN), DraftKings (DKNG), Flutter Entertainment (PDYPY), Gan Limited (GAN), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), MGM Resorts (MGM), Penn National (PENN), William Hill (WIMHY) and Wynn Resorts (WYNN).
3. Pfizer (PFE) has filed a lawsuit against the federal government in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking a judgment in favor of proposed patient-assistance programs that would allow the company to help cover its tafamidis copays for many Medicaid beneficiaries, Eleanor Laise wrote in this week’s edition of Barron’s. Such programs, which can be sponsored directly by drug companies or independent charities funded largely by the pharmaceutical industry, often cover much or all of patients’ out-of-pocket drug costs, leaving third-party payers such as insurers and Medicare to pick up most of the tab. Patient-assistance programs covering out-of-pocket costs remove a powerful market force-patients’ price sensitivity-that would otherwise push down drug prices, and drugmakers can use them to boost sales of pricey medications, researchers say.
4. IBM’s (IBM) CEO Arvind Krishna is betting on the well-practiced gambit of a corporate divorce to revive the former corporate icon, but tech history shows the outcome can be disappointing, The Wall Street Journal’s Asa Fitch reported. The plan to spin off the unit that manages clients’ information-technology infrastructure and had around $19B in annual sales would likely represent one of the biggest corporate separations in recent years, according to Dealogic data. But like many others, it comes with execution challenges, the author noted. Through the split and a big bet on cloud computing, Krishna is trying to inject growth after a lost decade during which the 109-year-old company fell behind rivals, the publication added.
5. LabCorp (LH), AllianceBernstein (AB) and Equitable Holdings (EQH) saw positive mentions in this week’s edition of Barron’s.