Catch up on the weekend’s top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Two of Unilever’s (UL) largest investors have called for a radical shake-up of the company or its board in the wake of its abortive 50B GBp pursuit of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) consumer health business, Financial Times’ Harriet Agnew and Judith Evans reported. Bert Flossbach said the FTSE 100 consumer group should consider overhauling its structure, which consists of three divisions for beauty, food and household products, the authors noted. Another top-20 shareholder called for the removal of the Unilever’s chair, Nils Andersen, reflecting concerns that he and the board allowed chief executive Alan Jope to make increasing bids for the GSK division, a potential deal whose size and timing blindsided investors and provoked a backlash, the publication added. The top-20 shareholder said a new chair should be appointed from outside the board. He added that a replacement for Andersen could then evaluate both Unilever’s strategy and whether Jope and its chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly were appropriate for their positions. 2. Surging prices for the metals that make up electric-vehicle batteries have ended a decadelong decline that brought the cost of EVs to within spitting distance of gasoline-powered vehicles, The Wall Street Journal’s Scott Patterson reported. With electric-vehicle sales taking off and a wave of new models hitting the market this year, the price increases could weigh on growth, the author noted. Since 2010, lithium-ion battery prices on average have tumbled 90% to about $130 per kilowatt-hour, with the magic number that makes electric vehicles competitive with internal-combustion engine vehicles is roughly $100 a kilowatt-hour. Many expected the battery industry to reach that mark in 2024, a goal that is looking increasingly elusive, the publication added. Prices are now soaring for the key ingredient in batteries. Publicly traded companies in the space include Tesla (TSLA), Lucid (LCID), Nikola (NKLA), Nio (NIO), Li Auto (LI), Xpeng (XPEV), Fisker (FSR), Rivian (RIVN) and Lordstown Motors (RIDE). 3. Within 24 hours of reporting dismal results on Wednesday night, Facebook parent Meta Platforms (FB) lost more than a quarter of its market capitalization, some $250 billion, Eric J. Savitz wrote in this week’s edition of Barron’s. And the value destruction might not be over as this time, the problems are with the business itself, the author noted. To be sure, the Meta story still has investor appeal, most notably a cheap stock, Savitz added, pointing out, however, that Meta’s risks are growing and they’re no longer just about Facebook’s legacy business. 4. ViacomCBS (VIAC) subsidiary Paramount Pictures’ “Jackass Forever” won this weekend’s box office with a better-than-expected $23.5M debut from 3,604 locations. Overseas, the movie opened to $5.2M for an early global start of $28.7M. 5. Boston Beer (SAM), Booking Holdings (BKNG), Chevron (CVX), Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), McDonald’s (MCD), Raytheon Technologies (RTX), UPS (UPS), HelloFresh (HLFFF), and Medtronic (MDT) saw positive mentions in this week’s edition of Barron’s.
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