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Global mergers and acquisitions activity is on pace to reach $4tn in deal value in 2026, marking the strongest year since 2021, according to PwC. The surge has been driven largely by a growing number of megadeals tied to artificial intelligence (AI), with transactions valued above $5bn accounting for nearly half of total global deal value so far this year. PwC said AI is reshaping the M&A landscape by redirecting capital and accelerating consolidation among companies seeking to strengthen their competitive positions. Notable transactions include SpaceX’s proposed $60bn acquisition of AI startup Cursor and Salesforce’s $3.6bn purchase of customer service platform Fin. While large deals continue to gain momentum, PwC noted that mid-market transactions remain constrained by geopolitical uncertainty, valuation disagreements, inflation, higher interest rates, and a backlog of private equity exits.

 

CNBC

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Nike has appointed David Denton, currently chief financial officer of Pfizer, as its new CFO, replacing Matthew Friend as the sportswear giant continues a slower-than-expected turnaround amid supply chain challenges and intense competition. Mr Denton, who previously served as CFO at Lowe’s and CVS Health, will join Nike on August 17th. Nike has been grappling with elevated inventory levels and weak demand in key markets such as North America and China, with management acknowledging in March that the turnaround was progressing more slowly than anticipated. Analysts said the CFO change reflects the scale of the challenges facing the company, although it does not necessarily indicate further deterioration in trading performance.

 

Reuters

Wendy’s has appointed restaurant industry veteran Steve Cirulis as chief financial officer, effective immediately, succeeding Ken Cook as the fast-food chain navigates soft consumer demand and ongoing pressure from activist investors. Mr. Cirulis, 55, joins from Potbelly Corp, where he served as CFO and worked alongside Robert Wright, who was appointed Wendy’s president and chief executive last month. The move marks another significant leadership change as the company seeks to strengthen its management team. The appointment comes amid heightened investor scrutiny. Activist shareholder Nelson Peltz and Trian Fund Management have explored potential financing options for a possible take-private transaction. Earlier this year, Peltz stated that Wendy’s shares were undervalued and disclosed discussions with potential funding sources regarding strategic alternatives, including an acquisition.

 

Reuters

GameStop chief executive Ryan Cohen has declined a potential $35bn performance-based compensation package, saying management should remain focused on improving operations and pursuing the company’s proposed acquisition of eBay. The incentive plan, unveiled in January, would have rewarded Mr Cohen if GameStop increased its market value by more than tenfold and delivered significant profit growth. However, the billionaire executive has opted not to receive the award as the retailer advances its takeover ambitions. GameStop surprised investors in May with an unsolicited $56bn cash-and-stock offer for eBay, aiming to create a stronger competitor to Amazon. eBay’s board rejected the proposal, describing it as neither credible nor attractive. GameStop said it will release further details this week outlining the strategic and operational rationale for a combined business.

 

Bloomberg

Reuters

A U.S. official has told The Associated Press that Anthropic's Mythos model identified vulnerabilities in highly ​sensitive U.S. government computer systems during a testing exercise. Anthropic teamed up with Washington's intelligence agencies to conduct tests using Mythos under Project Glasswing, a restricted program designed to find and fix ​vulnerabilities in critical software before attackers could exploit them. The tests had identified certain vulnerabilities within hours, but that does not mean the model was able to exploit them within that time, the official said.

 

AP News

Accounting and advisory firm Eide Bailly has agreed to sell a majority stake to Reverence Capital Partners and co-investors in a deal valuing the business at approximately $1.8bn. The firm said the investment will help accelerate its adoption of artificial intelligence and support expansion of its services and operations, with management targeting a doubling of revenue within the next three to four years. Eide Bailly, which generated about $840m in revenue in its most recent fiscal year, joins a growing number of large U.S. accounting firms turning to private equity funding to finance growth and technology investments. To comply with regulatory independence requirements, the investment will be made in the firm's non-audit business, while its audit practice will remain a separately licensed CPA firm.

 

Wall Street Journal

Walmart has agreed to acquire French advertising technology company Vibe.co for approximately $1.4bn, marking the retailer’s largest acquisition since its $2.3bn purchase of Vizio in 2024 and underscoring its ambition to expand its advertising business. Vibe.co specializes in enabling advertising on connected televisions (CTV), particularly for small and medium-sized businesses that lack large advertising budgets or dedicated media-buying teams. Walmart said the acquisition will help more advertisers launch CTV campaigns and improve measurement of their effectiveness. According to people familiar with the deal, the transaction includes a $1.2bn cash payment for Vibe.co and approximately $180m in retention payments for senior executives, contingent in part on them remaining with Walmart for four years. Vibe.co chief executive Arthur Querou, chief technology officer Franck Tetzlaff and other employees will join Walmart’s advertising division following completion.

 

Bloomberg

Wall Street Journal

Oracle has shed about 21,000 roles globally in the last year as the technology giant reshapes its business around AI, the firm's latest annual report shows. The software and cloud computing firm said it had around 141,000 full-time employees as of 31 May 2026, down from about 162,000 workers at the same time last year. The "deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce," the report said.

 

BBC News

CNBC

Writing for Bloomberg Law, Ford Motor general counsel Steven Croley says in-house teams are increasingly leaning on their law firms for tips on what AI to use - and what to avoid. Firms have traditionally sought to spread best practices among their clients, and now they need to proactively use AI to do that, writes Croley, who says that Ford is searching for firms that use AI to deliver on what the carmaker needs, and backing away from those that don’t.

 

Bloomberg Law

Alibaba has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense, seeking removal from a blacklist of companies alleged to have ties to the Chinese military, arguing that the designation was made without sufficient evidence and is causing reputational and financial harm. The Chinese ecommerce group told a California court that its inclusion on the Pentagon’s so-called 1260H list was “arbitrary and capricious”, claiming the department failed to consider evidence disproving any links to the People’s Liberation Army or China’s military-civil fusion strategy. Alibaba was added to the list alongside several prominent Chinese companies, including electric vehicle manufacturer BYD. While the blacklist does not immediately impose sanctions, Alibaba said the designation increases the risk of state-level divestment mandates affecting its New York Stock Exchange-listed shares and raises the prospect of future punitive measures. Some U.S. lawmakers have previously advocated delisting Chinese companies included on the list.

 

Financial Times

Global Times

New York Times

South China Morning Post

The Supreme Court has ruled that ExxonMobil can sue Cuban state-owned enterprises in U.S. courts for property seized after Fidel Castro's rise to power.  At issue was whether the 1996 law known as the Helms-Burton Act removes the shield from lawsuits in American courts that typically cover foreign countries and state-owned businesses. The justices reversed a lower-court ruling that found that the Cuban state-owned companies are immune from lawsuits in U.S. courts. “Today’s decision is a critical moment in a 60 year effort to be compensated for what the Cuban government illegally seized,” Exxon said in a statement. “It reflects two things: the merits of our argument and the fact that our company will fight a good fight for as long as it takes.”

 

Bloomberg Law

The Baltimore Sun

Law

U.S. News

President Donald Trump has nominated veteran tax attorney James Gadwood to serve as IRS chief counsel. Mr. Gadwood, currently vice chair of the tax department at Washington law firm Miller & Chevalier, advises large corporations and high-net-worth individuals on tax disputes and policy matters. If confirmed by the Senate, he will lead the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, which employs about 2,300 people and provides legal guidance, oversees tax regulations, and handles litigation before the U.S. Tax Court. The nomination follows Trump’s withdrawal of his previous choice, former IRS Chief Counsel Donald Korb, after criticism from conservative activists over his past political donations. Mr. Gadwood’s appointment would also allow Kenneth Kies, who has been serving simultaneously as acting IRS chief counsel and the Treasury Department’s top tax policy official, to step back from the interim role.

 

Bloomberg Tax

Wall Street Journal

U.S. private sector business activity continued to expand in June, with the S&P Global Flash U.S. Composite PMI rising to 52.2 from 51.5 in May, signaling ongoing economic growth. Manufacturing output increased at its fastest pace since July 2021, supported by the strongest rise in new orders in more than four years, while the services sector reached a four-month high. The survey also found that businesses reduced staffing levels amid concerns about the economic outlook and rising costs, particularly for raw materials. “The service sector continues to grow at an especially subdued pace, reflecting push-back from customers over high prices amid low levels of consumer confidence in particular,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. “While there is better news from the manufacturing sector, we remain concerned as factory growth continues to be temporarily buoyed by inventory building amid supply fears.”

 

Quartz

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

The European Union’s General Court has ruled that the manufacture of private jets cannot be automatically excluded from the EU’s sustainable finance taxonomy, overturning a European Commission decision that had barred the sector from being classified as environmentally sustainable. The case was brought by French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation, which challenged the Commission’s 2023 decision to exclude aircraft used for private and business aviation from the EU’s list of green investment activities. The Commission had based its decision on the higher carbon emissions of private aviation compared with other forms of transportation. The court found that private aviation serves specific functions related to flexibility, speed, and connectivity, making comparisons with other transport modes inappropriate. Judges also noted that emissions are generated through the operation of aircraft rather than their manufacture.

 

Financial Times

Reuters

Reuters reports that U.S. curbs on artificial intelligence (AI) - including the White House ordering San Francisco-based Anthropic to suspend access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for foreign nationals - are encouraging European companies to spread the technology's risk across multiple providers and reinforcing the need for a greater number of domestic alternatives. "You ​need flexibility," Cedrik Neike, chief executive of Digital Industries at Siemens, told Reuters. "Sovereignty often gets confused with autarky (economic self-sufficiency), and autarky is absolutely not the way to do it." Siemens uses Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Alibaba's Qwen alongside U.S. and European models.

 

Reuters

Heineken has appointed Rafael Oliveira, chief executive of coffee company JDE Peet’s, as its new CEO, marking the first time the Dutch brewer has hired an external candidate to lead the business. Mr Oliveira will join Heineken on October 1st, succeeding Dolf van den Brink, who stepped down at the end of May after six years as CEO and more than 28 years with the company. His appointment comes as Heineken seeks to revive growth amid weakening beer demand, with consumers cutting alcohol consumption and reducing discretionary spending.

 

NL Times

Bloomberg

Financial Times

Reuters