|
Trade Wars
Texas Instruments to Acquire Silicon Labs in Deal Valued at $7.5 Billion
Texas Instruments said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire wireless-technology company Silicon Labs in a deal with an enterprise value of about $7.5 billion, including cash and debt. The semiconductor company said it would buy Austin, Texas-based Silicon Labs—whose technology has a range of applications in homes, healthcare and industry—for $231 a share in cash.
“Silicon Labs’ leading embedded wireless connectivity portfolio enhances our technology and IP, enabling greater scale and allowing us to better serve our customers,” Texas Instruments Chief Executive Haviv Ilan said. “Texas Instruments’ industry-leading and internally owned technology and manufacturing is optimized for Silicon Labs’ portfolio, and will provide customers dependable supply worldwide.”
Read more at The WSJ
Automakers Back Trump Plan To Roll Back Fuel Economy Rules, But Seek Changes
Major automakers on Wednesday called for changes in the Trump administration's proposal to reform fuel economy standards, but said they back the plan to drastically slash the efficiency requirements. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents General Motors, Toyota Motor, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Ford and other automakers, backed the reduction in stringency proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but asked it to not eliminate credit trading to meet regulatory requirements and reconsider plans to reclassify more vehicles as cars.
NHTSA proposes to eliminate credit trading among automakers in 2028, and will end some credits for fuel-saving features. It would also reclassify many vehicles as cars instead of trucks, which impacts automakers since cars face more stringent standards than trucks. The automakers called for continuing credits for air conditioning efficiency and other technologies. NHTSA is proposing to revise down the 2022 fuel economy standards and then proposing to hike them between 0.25% and 0.5% annually through 2031. In 2022, under Biden, NHTSA increased fuel efficiency by 8% annually for model years 2024-2025 and 10% for 2026.
Read more at Yahoo Finance
AMD 4th Quarter Earnings Disappoint
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices dropped 9% in early premarket trading Wednesday after its first-quarter forecast fell short of some analyst expectations. AMD reported revenue of $10.27 billion for the fourth quarter that topped LSEG consensus estimates of $9.67 billion on Tuesday. The company said it expects $9.8 billion in revenue for the first quarter, plus or minus $300 million, versus expectations of $9.38 billion. But some analysts had predicted the chipmaker would provide stronger guidance for the first-quarter amid an ongoing boom in spending for the processors needed to power artificial intelligence.
However, the semiconductor analyst Susquehanna’s Chris Rolland said, demand for AMD’s chips in data centers was still strong and the company was hinting at multi-gigawatt contracts to come in the future. The chipmaker inked a deal with OpenAI in October that could see the startup take a 10% stake in AMD. OpenAI will deploy 6 gigawatts of AMD’s Instinct graphics processing units over multiple years beginning with an initial 1-gigawatt rollout of chips in the second half of 2026, the companies said. Oracle also announced in October plans to deploy 50,000 of AMD’s AI chips beginning later this year.
Read more at CNBC
A Tale of Two Pharma Firms
Eli Lilly Profit Rises as Weight-Loss Drug Demand Surges
Eli Lilly reported higher fourth-quarter profit on the back of surging demand for its GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. The pharmaceutical company reported net income of $6.64 billion, or $7.39 a share, up from $4.41 billion, or $4.88 a share, the year prior. Adjusted earnings were $7.54 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $6.91 a share. Revenue rose 43% to $19.29 billion, driven by a 46% increase in volume, partially offset by a 5% decline in realized prices. Wall Street expected $17.94 billion in revenue.
The company has seen soaring demand for its weight-loss treatments Zepbound and Mounjaro, both of which saw sales more than double in the fourth quarter from the previous year. The company recorded $7.41 billion in Mounjaro revenue and $4.26 billion in Zepbound revenue. Eli Lilly guided for 2026 revenue of $80 billion to $83 billion and earnings of $33.50 to $35 a share. Analysts see 2026 revenue of $77.64 billion and earnings of $32.47 a share. Eli Lilly is also preparing to launch a new weight-loss pill called orforglipron. Analysts have said the convenience of the pill could spark even more demand than Zepbound and Mounjaro, which are injected weekly, as some patients are averse to injections. Read more at The WSJ
Wegovy Maker Novo Nordisk Warns Of 'Painful' Price Cuts As Shares Plunge
Shares in the Danish company which makes Ozempic and Wegovy plunged 18%, as its boss warned things would get worse before they improve following steep price cuts. Novo Nordisk had reported it expected profits and sales to fall by as much as 13%, and on Wednesday chief executive Maziar Mike Doustdar called pricing pressures "unprecedented" and "painful". Novo’s warning reflects mounting competition in the fast-growing market for weight-loss drugs, as it fights for market share with Eli Lilly & Co. and telehealth companies selling cheaper copycat versions of their drugs. It also highlights how drugmakers are under pressure from President Donald Trump to lower pharmaceutical costs for many Americans.
A pill version of the blockbuster obesity shot Wegovy has fed some optimism this year. The pill had a “really good start” with more than 170,000 patients starting on it since its launch, according to Knudsen. “It’s the strongest launch in this market ever,” he said. Rather than cannibalizing sales of its injectable shots, Knudsen said with the early data Novo has, more than 80% of patients are new to GLP-1 treatment. “We see very limited switch from other GLP-1 compounds,” he said. “But again, it’s early days. But I would say our overarching strategy is one of expanding the markets.” Read more at Yahoo Finance
Grainger Posts Double-Digit January Sales Pop
Daily sales at industrial distributor W.W. Grainger Inc. rose more than 10% in January on a constant-currency basis, executives said Feb. 3, adding an optimistic data point to the big jump in the ISM Manufacturing PMI reported less than 24 hours earlier. The double-digit pop in January organic sales was more than double the 4.6% growth posted in the fourth quarter by Grainger, which is headquartered near Chicago and has more than 4.5 million customers around the world. It’s also several percentage points higher than the 2026 range of 6.5% to 9% that Chairman and CEO D.G. Macpherson and his team are forecasting.
Despite chatter of an inflection in the factory sector, Chairman and CEO D.G. Macpherson says the mood remains merely “okay.” “There’s not really enormous tailwinds that people are seeing from a volume perspective,” he said about recent conversations the Grainger team has been having with large customers. “I think everybody is seeing price, which obviously helps with the revenue numbers. But generally, it’s very, very industry-specific at this point. So you can run the gamut from very high optimism to fairly strong pessimism as well. Overall, I think the mood is okay.”
Read more at Industry Week
NASA Conducts Artemis II Fuel Test, Eyes March for Launch Opportunity
NASA concluded a wet dress rehearsal for the agency’s Artemis II test flight early Tuesday morning, successfully loading cryogenic propellant into the SLS (Space Launch System) tanks, sending a team out to the launch pad to closeout Orion, and safely draining the rocket. The wet dress rehearsal was a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket, designed to identify any issues and resolve them before attempting a launch. Engineers pushed through several challenges during the two-day test and met many of the planned objectives. To allow teams to review data and conduct a second wet dress rehearsal, NASA now will target March as the earliest possible launch opportunity for the flight test.
Moving off a February launch window also means the Artemis II astronauts will be released from quarantine, which they entered in Houston on Jan. 21. As a result, they will not travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Tuesday as tentatively planned. Crew will enter quarantine again about two weeks out from the next targeted launch opportunity. With March as the potential launch window, teams will fully review data from the test, mitigate each issue, and return to testing ahead of setting an official target launch date.
Read more at nasa.gov
Driveline Manufacturing Merger Completed
Dauch Corporation - the automotive driveline manufacturing and metal forming business known previously as American Axle & Manufacturing - completed its takeover of Dowlais Group plc and its subsidiaries, GKN Automotive and GKN Powder Metallurgy. The approximately $1.44-billion deal involving both cash and stock was first announced in January 2025. "This is a defining and transformational time for both companies," stated chairman and CEO David C. Dauch. "By uniting the capabilities of both organizations under one brand, we're creating a premier Driveline and Metal Forming supplier serving the global automotive industry that is built to perform—one positioned to meet today's demands and lead into the next era of propulsion."
Dowlais was created in 2023 through an asset spinoff by investor group Melrose Industries. GKN Automotive designs and manufactures automotive sideshafts, propshafts, and AWD/eDrive systems. GKN Powder Metallurgy manufactures metal powders and sintered precision components. Dauch Corp. manufactures axles and chassis systems for cars, SUVs, and commercial vehicles, as well as electric drive systems for EVs. It also has hot, warm, and cold forging operations for driveline components. The combined company will be headquartered in Detroit, with manufacturing operations in the U.S., Europe, and China.
Read more at American Machinist
Michale Dell’s Son Wants to Shore Up the Texas Power Grid
Zach Dell aims to shore up the Texas power grid with an army of batteries installed one home at a time. The 29-year-old is the son of billionaire computer pioneer Michael Dell and the co-founder and chief executive of Base Power, a home-battery company that says it is adding more than 50 customers a day in markets including Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Base Power has raised more than $1.3 billion from investors as battery storage is booming and grid-reliability issues are sending homeowners in frantic search of backup power.
Utility customers across the country increasingly face less reliable service from a combination of severe weather and an aging electricity system, while federal regulators have warned that power demand is outpacing infrastructure development. In states like Texas, both hurricanes and winter storms can cause disruptions. Base Power describes itself as a subscription service. The company owns the batteries and acts as a retail power provider for its customers, offering what it promises will be a lower-than-average rate. If the lights go out, the batteries will power a home for a day or two, depending on the size of the installation. In the meantime, Base Power bundles the scattered residential batteries and plays power trader, acting as a single power plant. The company has more than 10,000 customers and about 200 megawatt-hours of installed capacity so far. The Austin-based company hopes to expand beyond Texas.
Read more at The WSJ
|
