MORNING NEWS

Verizon Communications agreed to buy back some of the fiber-optic lines it sold off nearly a decade ago through a $9.6 billion deal for Frontier Communications. The all-cash deal, announced Thursday, offered $38.50 a share for Frontier investors. The companies said it was valued at $20 billion including acquired debt.

U.S. Steel’s chief executive said the company would close steel mills if its planned sale to Nippon Steel collapses, as the Biden administration is moving closer to blocking the deal. CEO David Burritt said the nearly $3 billion that Japan-based Nippon Steel has pledged to invest in the Pittsburgh company’s older mills is critical to keeping them competitive and maintaining workers’ jobs. “We wouldn’t do that if the deal falls through,” Burritt said in an interview.

According to a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has subpoenaed Nvidia and other companies to find evidence that the chipmaker violated antitrust laws. The DOJ had previously sent questionnaires to the companies, so the subpoenas were an escalation of the government investigation, according to the report.

Atos slashed its revenue and earnings forecasts through 2027 as clients cancel or delay signing new contracts while the beleaguered French IT company seeks to implement a financial restructuring aimed at restoring profitability. The group said the cuts were necessary as it faces soft demand in some business areas, with customers exercising caution before inking deals with a company that is awaiting a liquidity injection from banks and bondholders. Atos now expects to close the year with 9.73 billion euros ($10.75 billion) in revenue, down from a previous forecast of 9.76 billion euros.

Goldman Sachs plans to cut more than 1,300 employees from its global workforce as part of an annual review process to cull the low performers, according to people familiar with the matter. The bank will likely cut between 3% and 4% of its workforce, the people said. That would affect between 1,300 and 1,800 people, roughly, given that Goldman employed about 45,300 people as of late last year. The cuts are expected across the bank’s various divisions, with some teams impacted more than others.

French distiller Pernod Ricard (+2%) anticipates a soft first quarter after lower sales and earnings in the last fiscal year, though China’s decision to pause dumping measures against brandy from the European Union offered a bright spot in a key market. The company—which houses brands such as Absolut vodka and Ballantine’s whisky—said Thursday that it expects sales to return to growth in fiscal 2025, but the first three months would be sluggish, partly due to further inventory destocking in the U.S.

Nvidia’s sales and earnings more than doubled in the company’s most recent quarter, showcasing the momentum of the nearly two-year-old AI boom despite concern that investment has surged ahead too quickly. Investors responded by sending the company’s shares down 6.9% in after-hours trading. Through Wednesday’s close, the shares had gained more than 150% this year alone, pushing Nvidia’s valuation above $3 trillion and making it the second-largest listed company in the world, behind Apple.

Eli Lilly (+0.4%) will begin offering its popular new weight-loss drug Zepbound in vials—in addition to standard injection-pen devices—at about half the price of the original for certain doses. To date, Zepbound has been packaged in a single device, an injection pen that contains both the drug and the needle. Patients press a button on one end to insert a needle on the other end that delivers the dose.

September is right around the corner, and so is the next big Apple iPhone event. Apple investors and customers can finally mark their calendars - the next iPhone launch event is officially scheduled for Sept. 9 at 1 p.m. EST. Apple usually hosts its product events in September, so Wall Street has been anxiously waiting for the company to officially announce the actual date.

Siemens Healthineers has agreed to buy part of a Novartis business unit specialising in the production of radioactive chemicals for cancer scans. The acquisition will provide a further boost to the healthcare group's largest division. The German group will pay more than 200 million euros for the diagnostics division of Advanced Accelerator Applications, according to two people familiar with the transaction. The companies confirmed the transaction separately.