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Moderna confirms Covid sales guidance as shares sink on Pfizer news

With its shares under pressure due to revised Covid guidance from Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. on Monday said it “remains comfortable” with its existing guidance on full-year 2023 COVID-19 sales. Moderna reiterated that full-year Covid vaccines sales are expected to be in the range of $6 billion to $8 billion, guidance previously provided in its August earnings release. The company also sounded a note of caution, saying in a statement Monday that “it is still too early in the U.S. vaccination season to accurately project where vaccination rates will land for the full year.”

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Microsoft’s Activision Buy Extends Nadella’s Decade of Deals

Microsoft closed its $75 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the largest in a decade of deals under Chief Executive Satya Nadella that have positioned the software giant at the center of sectors from videogames to artificial intelligence. The purchase is the biggest deal in its nearly 50-year history and took 21 months to get through a global gantlet of regulators.

By
Ludovica SCOTTO DI PERTA
Morning News

EasyJet To Deliver Record Q4 Headline Pretax Profit

EasyJet Plc (-7% in London) confirmed it expects fourth quarter headline profit before tax to be between 650 million pounds - 670 million pounds. Total group revenue is projected to be around 3.12 billion pounds with passenger revenue of 1.97 billion pounds. During fourth quarter, easyJet flew 28.6 million seats, a 9% increase on the same period last year. Load factor was 92%, flat with prior year. Passenger numbers in the quarter increased to 26.2 million from 24.3 million.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Givaudan Q3 Sales Decline; Sees Organic Sales Growth Ahead

Givaudan AG, the Swiss manufacturer of flavors, fragrances, and cosmetic ingredients, reported Thursday that its third-quarter group sales were 1.73 billion Swiss francs, down 4.3 percent from last year's 1.81 billion francs. Like for like or LFL sales grew 4 percent. Fragrance & Beauty sales were 839 million francs, down 0.5 percent from last year, and Taste & Wellbeing sales fell 7.6 percent to 891 million francs.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

LVMH Sales Miss Forecasts Amid Luxury Industry Slowdown

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton posted sales below analysts’ expectations for the third quarter as the luxury-goods industry grapples with inflation and high interest rates that are squeezing consumer spending. The world’s largest luxury goods conglomerate said Tuesday that sales climbed to 19.96 billion euros ($21.09 billion) in the three months to the end of September, up 9% on an organic basis from the previous year. Analysts had forecast sales of EUR20.48 billion, according to FactSet.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Bristol to Buy Mirati, Valuing It At Up to $5.8 Billion

Bristol Myers Squibb (-0.1%) will acquire Mirati Therapeutics (-5.3%) in a transaction that values the oncology developer at up to $5.8 billion, the latest example of a drugmaker targeting deals to replenish revenue as top-selling products face competition from generics. The biopharmaceutical company on Sunday said that it had entered into a definitive merger agreement with Mirati under which it would pay $58.00 per share in cash.

By
Ludovica SCOTTO DI PERTA
Morning News

Exxon Mobil Closing In on Megadeal With Shale Driller Pioneer

Pioneer Natural Resources was the S&P 500’s best performer Friday, adding 10% after The Wall Street Journal reported that Exxon Mobil (-1.7%) is closing in on a deal to buy the shale driller, a blockbuster takeover that could be worth roughly $60 billion and reshape the U.S. oil industry. A deal could be sealed as soon as in the coming days, though it is still possible there won’t be one, people familiar with the matter said.

By
Ludovica SCOTTO DI PERTA
Morning News

BlackBerry To Split into Two, Take IoT Business Public Next Year

BlackBerry said it plans to separate the internet of things or IoT and Cybersecurity business units into two independently operated entities. The company noted that the main objective of the separation is to pursue a subsidiary initial public offering for the IoT business, with a launch targeted in the first half of the next fiscal year.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Novartis Completes Sandoz Spin-off

Swiss pharma major Novartis has completed the spin-off of its generics and biosimilars business Sandoz through a dividend-in-kind distribution to holders of Novartis shares and American Depositary Receipts or ADRs. The proposed spin-off was approved by Novartis shareholders in September. Every holder received one Sandoz share for every five Novartis shares held or one Sandoz ADR for every five Novartis ADRs held at the business close of October 3.

By
Nadine PEREIRA
Morning News

Volkswagen Hires Ex-Tesla, Rivian Executive for Shot in Cariad Software Arm

Volkswagen Group’s software company, Cariad, will enlist Rivian and Tesla veteran Sanjay Lal to speed up development of technology for digitization and electrification. Lal will join a company that replaced its chief executive officer, chief financial officer and chief technology officer earlier this year following delays in the development of new electric vehicle models. Starting in November, Lal will lead the software-defined vehicle hub at Cariad to develop two vehicles for the German car maker, the company said.

By
Mathieu VILLARD