Investors sue Facebook following data harvesting scandal
Investors are suing Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which has led to a decrease in company value of almost $50 billion. Facebook shareholder Fan Yuan filed the lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of an undisclosed number of investors who bought Facebook shares between February 3, 2017 and March 19, 2018. The lawsuit said Facebook “made materially false and misleading statements” about the company’s policies, and claims Facebook did not disclose that it allowed third parties to access data on millions of people without their knowledge. “As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s common shares, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages,” the lawsuit said. (CNN Money)
Strategy
Few companies link perks to climate change targets
Only around one in ten companies link pay and other incentives for board members or managers to objectives on how they are tackling climate change and the associated risks for the business. Twelve per cent of 1,681 companies in 14 countries explicitly linked incentives such as bonuses or a greater chance of promotion to climate-related targets, according to a report from CDP, an environmental impact charity, and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, a grouping of businesses and environmental groups. Germany has the highest proportion of companies that link incentives for board members with climate change goals, with 29 percent doing so. In France, the second highest ranking country, the proportion was 25 percent. The study did show that more than eight in 10 companies having at least one board member overseeing climate-related risks. (Financial Times*)
Competition
Amazon becomes second-most valuable publicly traded company ahead of rival Alphabet
Amazon has become the world’s second-most valuable publicly traded company, behind Apple, overtaking Google parent and internet rival Alphabet. This has been interpreted as a sign of growing investor optimism about the prospects for the world’s largest online retailer as it reaches into new markets such as groceries, health insurance and consumer devices. Google and Amazon once had very different core businesses. Now, the two are increasingly going head-to-head on several fronts. Google for example has invested heavily in the cloud market, which offers computing power and data storage, to catch Amazon Web Services. The rivalry between the companies can often get complicated and limit consumer access to products and services. Most recently, Amazon stopped selling some of Google’s Nest home-security devices on its web store. To retaliate, Google disabled YouTube from Amazon devices, including the Fire TV. (Bloomberg)
Climate Change
Report: World Bank suggests that climate change will cause the movement of more than 140 million people
Climate change will result in a massive movement of people inside countries and across borders, creating “hotspots” where tens of millions pour into already crowded slums, according to the World Bank. More than 140 million people from the developing world are likely to migrate within their home countries between now and 2050, with the report focusing on sub-Saharan Africa (86 million), south Asia (40 million) and Latin America (17 million). Such flows of people could cause enormous disruption, threatening governance and economic and social development, but the World Bank cautioned that it was still possible to stave off the worst effects. Kristalina Georgieva, the chief executive of the World Bank, suggests that “The number of climate migrants could be reduced by tens of millions as a result of global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and with far-sighted development planning. There is an opportunity now to plan and act for emerging climate change threats.” (Guardian)
Supply Chain
Coca-Cola and US State Department to use blockchain to combat forced labour
Coca-Cola and the US State Department, along with two other companies, are launching a project using blockchain’s digital ledger technology to create a secure registry for workers that will help fight the use of forced labour worldwide. The new venture is intended to create a secure registry for workers and their contracts using blockchain’s validation and digital notary capabilities, said Blockchain Trust Accelerator (BTA), a non-profit organization involved in the project. Food and beverage companies are under pressure to address the risk of forced labour in countries where they obtain sugarcane. A study released last year by KnowTheChain (KTC), a partnership founded by U.S.-based Humanity United, showed that most food and beverage companies fall short in their efforts to solve the problem. The study said Coca-Cola, one of 10 global companies looked at by KTC, has committed to conduct 28 country-level studies on child labour, forced labour, and land rights for its sugar supply chains by 2020. (Reuters)
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