Business News Roundup, April 19
Theranos Inc. said it’s under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, after the Palo Alto blood-testing startup has come under scrutiny by federal and state health regulators.
The memo was sent to Theranos’ “partners,” which include Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and others.
A redacted inspection report released in March by CMS detailed a long list of shortcomings at the company’s Newark laboratory, including failures to meet quality-control standards, such as not keeping freezers at the temperatures required by manufacturers; lack of proper documentation and missing signatures on paperwork; and unqualified personnel.
PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said Monday the company is reshaping its product lineup to better reflect the growing interest in healthy eating and noted it has reduced its reliance on colas.
The maker of Frito-Lay snacks, Mountain Dew, Naked juices and Quaker Oats now gets less than 25 percent of its global sales from soda, Nooyi said.
Nooyi’s remarks came Monday after PepsiCo said its sales and profit slipped in its first quarter, weighed down by an impairment charge and unfavorable currency exchange rates.
IBM delivered a quarterly performance that shows the steady headway it is making in new businesses led by cloud computing and data-analysis software, like its Watson artificial intelligence technology.
The erosion of some of its hardware and software products continues to be a drag on growth and profits, overshadowing the gains in the new fields.
IBM on Monday reported a 21 percent decline in net profit from continuing operations, to $2.3 billion in the first quarter that ended March 31.
Facebook’s Mike Vernal, the executive who oversaw search and developer products, has left to join venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
Vernal, who worked at Facebook for eight years, joins as a partner at Sequoia, where he will invest in early stage startups.
