Soon after ditching an IPO of its Asian business, which would have been the world's most valuable stock market offering this year, Anheuser-Busch InBev agreed to sell its Australian brewing division to Asahi, a Japanese beer maker, for $11.3 billion. The world's biggest brewer still intends eventually to list its Asian assets. It needs the money to pay down the huge debt that it amassed during a takeover binge.
The U.S. Justice Department announced a broad antitrust review of the market power of online platforms in search, social media and retailing. That increases the pressure on Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google to improve their behavior as the calls from some Democrats to break up those companies grow louder during the election season.
The Federal Trade Commission confirmed that it is slapping Facebook with a $5 billion fine for violating privacy. It ordered Facebook to change its attitude to privacy "from the corporate board-level down," and introduce mechanisms that make its executives accountable for decisions on privacy. The firm disclosed that the FTC has launched a separate antitrust investigation into its practices.
Boeing suffered its biggest quarterly net loss of $2.9 billion. The aerospace company recently disclosed an after-tax charge of $4.9 billion in connection with the worldwide grounding of its 737 Max airliner following two fatal crashes.
Carl Icahn, an activist investor, stepped up his attack on Occidental's offer to take over a rival oil company, Anadarko, calling it a "travesty." Icahn holds a 4.4% stake in Occidental and has nominated a slate of directors to sit on the company's board. He has been highly critical of Warren Buffett's backing of Occidental's bid, which includes putting $10 billion toward its financing.
The IMF lowered its forecast of global growth this year, to 3.2%, which would be the weakest in a decade. In its latest outlook the fund described the world economy as "subdued"; it is specifically concerned about trade and technology tensions between the United States and China and the prospect of Britain leaving the E.U. without a deal.
South Africa's finance minister laid out plans to provide Eskom, which generates most of the country's electricity, with another rescue, this time worth 59 billion rand ($4.2 billion).
Costs related to the overhaul of its business pushed Deutsche Bank to a $3.5 billion net loss in the second quarter, its biggest quarterly loss in four years. The German bank booked about half of a restructuring charge it will take as it retreats from trading and slashes 18,000 jobs over the next three years.
