Warren Buffett.
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Wake up to the shifts shaping the future.
From boardroom shakeups and billion-dollar bets to the latest tech breakthroughs rewriting the rules, The Company Brief is your front-row seat to the stories moving markets and mindsets.
We cut through the noise so you can stay ahead of the curve, one bold business move at a time.
Shein enters bricks-and-mortar retail in France, sparking backlash
Online fast-fashion retailer Shein plans to open its first brick-and-mortar shops in France in November under an agreement with department store owner Société des Grands Magasins, a move that sparked criticism from French retailers. The stores in the BHV department store in central Paris and Galeries Lafayette department stores in five other French cities mark a new step for Shein, which has, up to now, only hosted temporary marketing-driven pop-ups around the world.
Oracle says hackers are trying to extort its customers
Oracle said that customers of its E-Business Suite of products "have received extortion emails," confirming a warning first issued on Wednesday, opens new tab by Alphabet's Google. In a blog post, opens new tab, the California-based tech company said its investigation found that hackers had made potential use of previously identified software vulnerabilities and urged customers to upgrade their products. Oracle did not immediately respond when asked how many clients were affected. Google has described the hacking campaign as "high volume," but declined to go into detail.
Absa economist warns of strain on SA auto industry
The South African automotive industry faces a tough operating environment but remains focused on long-term success, Jeff Gable, Head of FIC Research at Absa CIB, told delegates at Naamsa Auto Week this week. Gable warned that South African Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) face mounting challenges. “For those SA firms that face off to the US for some of the export market, it’s clear that the Trump administration has a focus on bringing auto-sector jobs back to America,” he said. “By definition, that’s going to have a cost for everyone else. This is an issue for the full supply chain for OEMs as any volumes lost have a knock-on impact on upstream suppliers, volume efficiencies and more,” he added.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway buys OxyChem for R179.45 billion
Berkshire Hathaway is buying Occidental Petroleum’s chemical division for $9.7 billion (R179.45 billion) in what may be the last big acquisition involving the consummate dealmaker, Warren Buffett. The investor wasn’t mentioned anywhere in materials released by Berkshire Hathaway discussing the deal on Thursday, potentially signalling a passing of the torch to Vice Chair Greg Abel, to whom Buffet will hand the CEO title in January. Buffett will remain chairman at Berkshire and will still be involved in deciding how to spend the conglomerate’s colossal pile of more than $344 billion in cash. OxyChem makes things like chlorine for water treatment, vinyl chloride for plastics, and calcium chloride that’s used to treat icy roads, along with an assortment of other chemicals. It will fit nicely within Berkshire alongside Lubrizol, a chemical company Buffett bought in 2011 for $9 billion.
Minister Godongwana calls for more tax hikes on Alcohol and Tobacco
Africa is grappling with a sharp drop in foreign health aid and must boost its own funding source, potentially through higher taxes on tobacco and alcohol, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said on Thursday. Speaking at an African Union event in Johannesburg, Godongwana warned that the continent’s health systems are “facing a phalanx of multiple crises.” He urged African nations to build more resilient health financing models and reduce reliance on increasingly uncertain external funding.