Jennifer Johnson

EU M&A rules morph from growth catalyst to weapon Brussels’ overhaul of merger guidelines is ostensibly aimed at enabling growth-enhancing deals within the bloc. But amid US trade tensions, souped-up M&A constraints also offer a way for the EU to push back. American and other foreign firms may soon find their wings clipped.

EU M&A rules morph from growth catalyst to weapon - www.breakingviews.com/columns/cons... @jen-johnson.bsky.social

UK cyber support invites more moral hazard The state is guaranteeing a $2 bln loan to JLR, whose IT systems were attacked. Domestic industries received similar support during Covid-19, but this crisis could have been mitigated with proper cyber insurance. A detail-free bailout may encourage others not to pay for cover.

UK cyber support invites more moral hazard - www.breakingviews.com/columns/brea... @jen-johnson.bsky.social

Pretty sharp reversal given Zuckerberg was (reportedly) trying to entice AI talent with billion-dollar pay packages only a few months ago.

Kids will inevitably use VPNs to dodge online age restrictions. And a generation equipped with privacy tools is a lot harder for advertisers to target.

Here's my piece on the knock-on impacts of online safety laws 👇

Suddenly Blue Origin isn't just the rocket company that did the all-female gimmick spaceflight. It's now the heir apparent to all of SpaceX's government launch contracts.

Opinion | Anthropic C.E.O.: Don’t Let A.I. Companies off the Hook

What’s scarier than an AI that can blackmail us or make a bioweapon? That the Trump administration is meant to be the bulwark against it getting that far.

This is the same guy who claims "population collapse due to low birth rates is a much bigger risk to civilization than global warming."

RedBird might have got the Telegraph, but its headaches aren't over. Here's my column on the latest chapter in the broadsheet's sale saga. 👇

Exclusive | What Sam Altman Told OpenAI About the Secret Device He’s Making With Jony Ive The idea is a “chance to do the biggest thing we’ve ever done as a company here,” Altman told OpenAI employees Wednesday.

"The Journal earlier reported that the device won’t be a phone, and that Ive and Altman’s intent is to help wean users from screens."

Think I speak for all millennials when I say I'm not excited about the surveillance Tamagotchi.

Iberia mess places timely focus on grid resilience Spain and Portugal are yet to identify the cause of their mega-blackouts. But the need for major investment in electricity grids, to cope with swings in power supply and demand as the world electrifie...

Armchair energy experts started blaming renewables as soon as the lights went out across the Iberian peninsula. Here's my piece on why the grid deserves more attention, regardless of what caused the blackout.

www.breakingviews.com/considered-v...

How it feels explaining The Formula to people who think the UK got off lightly with a 10% tariff.

Apropos of nothing, I've just remembered that Liz Truss blamed the Bank of England for undermining her policies.

Trump tariffs: List of global responses and countermeasures Governments around the world pledged counter measures on the U.S. after President Donald Trump unveiled on Wednesday a new baseline 10% tariff on goods from all countries plus reciprocal tariffs on those that his administration says have high barriers to U.S. imports.

Understandably, most governments favour a "negotiate first, retaliate later" approach. But there's no way the U.S. can hold talks with ~60 aggrieved trading partners at once. Some will surely have to retaliate before they've had chance to plead their cases.

Can’t stop thinking about the big tariff chart Trump was waving around. Did they get it made at a DC print shop yesterday? Or use one of those online services where you send in your PDF and get the poster board mailed to you?

This has the energy of an unhinged game show.

If I heard correctly, Trump just said the Great Depression was caused by a lack of tariffs?

That's just not true. The Smoot-Hawley tariff made matters worse.

I imagine we're going to see a few more journalists adding their Signal accounts to their bios. Just on the off chance they somehow get looped into a top secret intelligence briefing.

The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.

Obviously this whole thing is wild. But I can't get over the National Security Council spokesperson saying the thread is "a demonstration of the deep and thoughtful policy coordination between senior officials". Real glass-half-full thinking there.

Carr is very concerned about freedom of speech. But isn't blocking an M&A deal on the basis that a company has a DEI policy...kind of like censorship?

Breakingviews - EU’s big Starlink headache is time, not money As relations between Ukraine and the Trump administration sour, Kyiv has encountered a pressing problem: it relies on Starlink to help its military coordinate operations. The good news is that it wouldn’t break the bank to replace Elon Musk’s satellite operator with kit supplied by $3 billion Anglo-French rival Eutelsat . The bad news is that executing such a switch would be highly complex – and couldn’t happen overnight.

Does Europe have a candidate to replace Starlink in Ukraine? The answer appears to be yes, but it wouldn't be a straightforward switch. And time, not money, is the limiting factor.

Here's my latest for @breakingviews.reuters.com

'Big Three' US airline stocks tumble as forecast cuts spook investors Shares of the "Big Three" U.S. carriers slumped in premarket trading on Tuesday after disappointing forecast adjustments from Delta Air Lines and American Airlines sparked concerns about the impact of a slowing economy on travel demand.

This is obviously a consumer confidence issue in the economic sense. But it's hard to imagine consumers feel confident getting on planes given DOGE has been trying to find "efficiencies" in air traffic control...

Breakingviews - Why Elon Musk is a headache for broadband bosses CEOs in the slow-growing, debt-heavy telecom sector are hardly short of problems. Elon Musk is giving them another one. The SpaceX boss’s satellite-internet business, Starlink, is signing up millions of broadband customers worldwide. The big question is whether the X owner and ally of U.S. President Donald Trump is too politically contentious abroad, prompting a regulatory backlash against his company.

Important to note that there aren't rival satellite internet providers as yet. The closest (potential) competitor is Amazon's Project Kuiper, so there's no escaping US hegemony here. More on this in a piece I wrote earlier this month:
www.reuters.com/breakingview...

Exclusive: US could cut Ukraine's access to Starlink internet services over minerals, say sources Ukraine's access to SpaceX-owned Starlink was brought up in talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials after Ukrainian President Zelenskiy turned down an initial proposal from U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent.

"Give us your resources or we'll shut off your internet" is a potent threat. A cautionary tale for countries where Starlink use is growing.

www.reuters.com/business/us-...

Exclusive: Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency, sources say Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.

Musk's team "have moved sofa beds onto the fifth floor of the agency's headquarters, which contains the director's office and can only be accessed with a security badge."

It's like they're attempting a coup via hackathon.

"Eric Trump described the Trump coin as 'the hottest digital meme on earth'."

Sometimes I think about how phenomenally difficult it would be to explain what this means, and why it's in a news article, to someone who'd been living off grid for 15 years.

Worth mentioning ahead of Musk's AfD chat: Germany hasn't embraced Starlink, his satellite internet venture. Its military reportedly called off talks over using the service last Feb. And Angela Merkel has called the group's sector dominance "a huge concern".

It's already shaping up to be an...eventful...year. See what else the @breakingviews.reuters.com team think is in store in our annual predictions series: www.breakingviews.com/predictions/

Brick phones will ring in an unlikely revival Nokia handsets of the early 2000s are appealing to a generation seeking a digital detox. The market, which is only 2% of US devices, is growing fast having doubled in a year. With the likes of Austral...

Tempted by a digital detox? You're not alone. Here's why I reckon the dumb phone could make a comeback in 2025. www.breakingviews.com/considered-v...

Vivendi’s discount haunts Bollorés post-breakup The media group split in four to shed a conglomerate valuation penalty. The bits are now collectively worth just 8 bln euros, implying no upside from the move. One lesson is that the discount was alwa...

Vivendi's breakup was meant to free the company from a conglomerate discount. But investors have decided the parts are worth less than the bundle. And that probably has to do with a certain controlling shareholder... Here's my piece on the spinoff saga: www.breakingviews.com/considered-v...

Lack of M&A is squeezing Britain’s media old guard The Telegraph newspaper wants a new owner but is struggling to get one. And $3.5 bln broadcaster ITV isn’t courting a deal, but probably should. Government intervention, or the threat of it, is a bloc...

The Telegraph wants a new owner but is struggling to get one. And broadcaster ITV isn’t courting a deal, but probably should. Here's my column on the M&A obstacles facing both groups: www.breakingviews.com/considered-v...