G20 expectations; Apple departure; Madame Tussauds - CNN

But the big event is Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday.

Markets want the conversation to yield a clear truce on trade, with commitments not to escalate tensions further as Washington and Beijing work toward a final deal.

It's not clear they'll get that. Trump told journalists Friday that additional tariffs on Chinese goods remain on the table.

"We'll see what happens and what comes out of it," Trump said. "It will be a very exciting day, I'm sure. A lot of people are talking about it."

2. Apple departure: Apple's chief design officer Jony Ive is leaving the company after nearly 30 years.

The company said Thursday that Ive will start his own design company, and Apple will be one of its primary clients. He'll continue to work closely on Apple (AAPL) projects.

Ive's departure marks the end of an era at Apple. He worked with Steve Jobs to design the company's most iconic products, from candy-colored iMacs to the iPod and the original iPhone.

Apple's stock dropped 0.9% in premarket trading Friday.

3. Tussauds deal: The Danish family behind Lego has partnered with Blackstone to take Merlin Entertainments private in a deal that values the owner of Madame Tussauds at £4.7 billion ($6 billion).

Merlin Entertainments (MERLY) operates theme parks and other attractions in 25 countries, drawing 67 million visitors a year. It also owns LegoLand and The London Eye.

The company said Friday that it had agreed to be purchased by a consortium made up of Kirkbi, the investment house of Lego's founding family, US private equity giant Blackstone (BX) and a Canadian pension fund.

The consortium will pay £4.55 ($5.75) per share for Merlin Entertainments, a 14% premium over the stock's closing price on Thursday.

4. Markets mixed: US stock futures point higher as investors sit in G20 limbo.

The Dow is poised to rise 90 points, or 0.3%, when markets open. The Nasdaq could climb 0.1% and the S&P 500 could gain 0.3%.

European markets opened largely in the green. Britain's FTSE 100 increased 0.2% in early trading, while Germany's DAX jumped 0.4%.

Stocks in Asia went the opposite direction. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei both fell 0.3%. The Shanghai Composite shed 0.6%.

The Dow closed down slightly Thursday. Boeing (BA) was the index's biggest loser, declining 2.9% after a new flaw was discovered in the updated software for the 737 Max jet.

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5. Coming this week:
Friday — US personal income and spending data; Constellation Brands (STZ) earnings

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html

2019-06-28 11:07:00Z
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Jony Ive's Involvement at Apple Reportedly Tapered After the Original Apple Watch Launched in 2015 - Mac Rumors

Following Apple's surprise announcement yesterday that Jony Ive is leaving the company, fresh details have emerged about the design chief's day-to-day involvement at Apple in recent years that suggest his exit has been a long time in the making.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that after the Apple Watch launched in 2015, Ive had already started relinquishing his responsibilities because of the strain it was putting on him personally.

Around the time, Ive told the New Yorker he'd become "deeply, deeply tired," and said the year leading up to the Apple Watch debut was "the most difficult" since he joined Apple.

To extend his time at the company, Apple subsequently agreed to change his official role to Chief Design Officer, which allowed day-to-day responsibility of the hardware and software design teams to shift to executives Alan Dye and Richard Howarth.

From then onward, Ive began coming to Apple headquarters "as little as twice a week," and many meetings with his design team reportedly took place in San Francisco so Ive could avoid the long commute from his home in the Pacific Heights district to Apple's HQ in Cupertino, California.

Ive sometimes even met with his team at the homes of his employees, at hotels, or other venues, according to people familiar with the matter, while the design executive did much of his work at a San Francisco office and studio, which has now become the base of his new LoveFrom business.

Ive also frequently travelled to London, near to where he was raised, according to Bloomberg's Gurman.

About two years into his new role, at the end of 2017, Apple said Ive had re-assumed some of the leadership responsibilities he had previously given up, and Howarth and Dye were removed from Apple's leadership page. But still Ive only came to the office a couple of days a week.

Some people familiar with Apple are worried about the new design leadership, reports Gurman. With Ive leaving, longtime Apple designer Evans Hankey will run the hardware design group. Hankey, who has more than 300 patents to her name, is described as a "great team leader", yet one person familiar with the design team told Gurman that Apple "now lacks a true design brain on its executive team, which is a concern."

Hankey and Dye will report to Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, who will likely gain more control over product direction, and some employees are also said to be concerned that the re-organization is another sign that Apple is less design-focused and becoming more of an operations company.

"The design team is made up of the most creative people, but now there is an operations barrier that wasn't there before," one former Apple executive said. "People are scared to be innovative."

Howarth is a designer at heart and didn’t want to manage. Hankey is known as a better manager, but isn’t a designer. The entire group of designers has reported to her and she to Ive after Howarth was demoted from VP a couple years ago. The org structure isn’t actually changing. https://t.co/oSxLRFUkkf

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) June 28, 2019

As for the fate of Richard Howarth, Gurman tweeted that he didn't want to manage the design team, whereas "Hankey is known as a better manager, but isn't a designer." The entire group of designers has been reporting to Hankey, "and she to Ive after Howarth was demoted from VP a couple years ago," said Gurman. "The [organizational] structure isn't actually changing."

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https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/28/jony-ives-role-at-apple-reduced-since-2015/

2019-06-28 11:20:00Z
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Binance Talking to Facebook About Libra Listing, Becoming Node: Reports - CoinDesk

According to reports in the crypto press Thursday, cryptocurrency exchange Binance is talking to Facebook about getting involved in the social media giant’s upcoming Libra project.

Finance Magnates says it spoke to Binance at the FinTech Junction event in Israel on Thursday, with the exchange’s CSO, Gin Chao, saying that early discussions have taken place with Facebook over a possible future listing of the libra token.

Chao said that as libra will be on a private blockchain initially, it won’t need external liquidity. However, Facebook may ultimately desire a secondary market, he said, adding:

“Currencies benefit from a secondary market, so it would be in their best interest to want to be listed.”

In another report from CryptoPotato, which also spoke to Chao at the Tel Aviv event, he further suggested that Binance may support the Libra blockchain by acting as a permissioned node that validates transactions.

Facebook has said that it will eventually have 100 nodes and has already named firms like Visa, Uber, eBay and Lyft as having already committed to the role (at the princely sum of roughly $10 million apiece).

Chao said that Binance is “definitely considering” the option, although a final decision is yet to be made.

Speaking generally about the Libra project, which was unveiled in mid-June, he said:

“It’s a good thing, for sure. Any time a company with the weight, size, resources, and impact of Facebook gets involved, it validates both blockchain and [cryptocurrencies]. So whether or not Libra becomes incredibly successful, it’s already a good thing.”

Binance image via Shutterstock

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https://www.coindesk.com/binance-talking-to-facebook-about-libra-listing-becoming-node-reports

2019-06-28 10:00:00Z
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Jony Ive's Apple exit has been a 'long time in the making' after he was only turning up to the office twice a week - INSIDER

• Apple announced Thursday that its longtime design chief, Jony Ive, would be leaving the company at the end of the year.
• While the news came as a shock to many, a new report from Bloomberg reveals that his departure has been a "long time in the making."
• In a report from Apple reporter Mark Gurman, Bloomberg said Ive had disengaged from his role and was only in the office twice a week.
• Ive is going on to set up his own design company, called LoveFrom, which will count Apple among its clients.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple announced the resignation of its famed design chief Jony Ive on Thursday after his near-30-year tenure at the company.

The news of came as a shock to many including analysts who described Ive as "irreplaceable" and said his departure would "leave a hole" in the company. On hearing the news, Apple's stock dropped -0.87%, wiping out $8 billion of Apple's market cap.

But Ive's departure had been a long time in the making, according to Business Insider's Troy Wolverton who said that there have been "rumblings for years" that he could leave after he shifted focus from the day-to-day business of designing Apple's products.

A new report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman revealed that Ive had been "shedding responsibilities" since the launch of the Apple Watch in 2015 and he came into Apple's headquarters as little as twice a week.

Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that many of Ive's meetings moved to San Francisco, where he lives and has an office and studio set up, to avoid him having to make the one hour commute to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California. Other meetings were reportedly held at the homes of his employees or at hotels.

"This has been a long time in the making," one person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, who wished to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to discuss Ive's resignation. "He's been at Apple over 25 years, and it's a really taxing job."

Steve Jobs.

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Ive is considered to be the mastermind behind Apple's biggest products, including the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac, and iPod. He joined the company when it was on the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1990s and help turn it into the trillion-dollar company that it is today.

He was also a close confidant of Steve Jobs, Apple's late cofounder and former CEO, and reported directly to him.

"Most of the greatest debates at Apple happened between those two as they walked together," Matt Rogers, cofounder of Nest Labs who worked on iPhone and iPod software from 2007 to 2010, told Bloomberg.

Jobs and Ive would lunch together regularly and walk around Apple's headquarters making design decisions together, according to Bloomberg. When Jobs died in 2011, Ive became the most important person at the company, it added.

But his intense stint at Apple had reportedly begun to wear him down. "It's been an extremely tense 25 years for him at Apple and there's a time for everyone to slow down," the person who wished to remain anonymous told Bloomberg.

Ive is now going on to set up his own design company, called LoveFrom. Apple will be one of his new clients.

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https://www.insider.com/jony-ive-apple-exit-long-time-in-the-making-2019-6

2019-06-28 10:16:33Z
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G20 expectations; Apple departure; Madame Tussauds - CNN

But the big event is Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday.

Markets want the conversation to yield a clear truce on trade, with commitments not to escalate tensions further as Washington and Beijing work toward a final deal.

It's not clear they'll get that. Trump told journalists Friday that additional tariffs on Chinese goods remain on the table.

"We'll see what happens and what comes out of it," Trump said. "It will be a very exciting day, I'm sure. A lot of people are talking about it."

2. Apple departure: Apple's chief design officer Jony Ive is leaving the company after nearly 30 years.

The company said Thursday that Ive will start his own design company, and Apple will be one of its primary clients. He'll continue to work closely on Apple (AAPL) projects.

Ive's departure marks the end of an era at Apple. He worked with Steve Jobs to design the company's most iconic products, from candy-colored iMacs to the iPod and the original iPhone.

Apple's stock dropped 0.9% in premarket trading Friday.

3. Tussauds deal: The Danish family behind Lego has partnered with Blackstone to take Merlin Entertainments private in a deal that values the owner of Madame Tussauds at £4.7 billion ($6 billion).

Merlin Entertainments (MERLY) operates theme parks and other attractions in 25 countries, drawing 67 million visitors a year. It also owns LegoLand and The London Eye.

The company said Friday that it had agreed to be purchased by a consortium made up of Kirkbi, the investment house of Lego's founding family, US private equity giant Blackstone (BX) and a Canadian pension fund.

The consortium will pay £4.55 ($5.75) per share for Merlin Entertainments, a 14% premium over the stock's closing price on Thursday.

4. Markets mixed: US stock futures point higher as investors sit in G20 limbo.

The Dow is poised to rise 90 points, or 0.3%, when markets open. The Nasdaq could climb 0.1% and the S&P 500 could gain 0.3%.

European markets opened largely in the green. Britain's FTSE 100 increased 0.2% in early trading, while Germany's DAX jumped 0.4%.

Stocks in Asia went the opposite direction. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Japan's Nikkei both fell 0.3%. The Shanghai Composite shed 0.6%.

The Dow closed down slightly Thursday. Boeing (BA) was the index's biggest loser, declining 2.9% after a new flaw was discovered in the updated software for the 737 Max jet.

Before the Bell newsletter: Key market news. In your inbox. Subscribe now!

5. Coming this week:
Friday — US personal income and spending data; Constellation Brands (STZ) earnings

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https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/28/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html

2019-06-28 09:23:00Z
CBMiTGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNubi5jb20vMjAxOS8wNi8yOC9pbnZlc3RpbmcvcHJlbWFya2V0LXN0b2Nrcy10cmFkaW5nL2luZGV4Lmh0bWzSAVBodHRwczovL2FtcC5jbm4uY29tL2Nubi8yMDE5LzA2LzI4L2ludmVzdGluZy9wcmVtYXJrZXQtc3RvY2tzLXRyYWRpbmcvaW5kZXguaHRtbA

Apple designer, Jony Ive to quit Apple Inc and start own firm - Mint

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYid4bfcUqw

2019-06-28 07:48:36Z
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Taco Bell-themed resort in Palm Springs sells out first day - ABC15 Arizona

PALM SPRINGS, CA — Taco Bell transformed a California hotel into a taco lover's dream vacation spot -- and it was such a hit that it sold out on the first day.

The Bell: A Taco Bell Hotel and Resort is set to open for four nights in Palm Springs in August.

Fans could begin booking their stay on Thursday, June 27, and by 11 a.m. the same day, it was fully booked.

Photos from the website show rooms with pillows and wall art designed like hot sauce packets and hot sauce packet-shaped pool floaties.

Taco Bell says the resort will have a special Taco Bell poolside menu, a Baja Bar and exclusive Taco Bell menu items.

They'll also have a Taco Bell Taco Shop Gift Shop, a DJ, on-site salon, movies at the pool and more.

Even though the resort experience is sold out, you can still sign up online to "receive updates, exclusive merchandise and more from The Bell Hotel."

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https://www.abc15.com/national/the-bell-taco-bell-themed-resort-in-palm-springs-sells-out-first-day

2019-06-27 18:02:00Z
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