Latest news with #businessturnaround
Forbes
18-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Couche-Tard Walking Away From Seven & I Deal May Not Be End Of Story
Couche-Tard has walked away from its bid for 7-Eleven's owner. (Photo by) Japanese 7-Eleven owner Seven & i Holdings Co. could yet remain a buyout target if the convenience store group fails in its business turnaround after dramatically seeing off Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.'s $45.8 billion takeover approach. The deal, which would have been the biggest ever foreign takeover of a Japanese company, ended in acrimony as Canada's Couche-Tard issued a 1,500-word missive to Seven & i's founding Ito family claiming they had never been open to talks and that the board had carried out a 'calculated campaign of obfuscation and delay.' And newly appointed Seven & i CEO Stephen Dacus will now have to convince investors that reforms proposed by his management team can deliver, especially in North America and Japan. The CEO is due to give an update on its turnaround in August. But it looks like he will have a job on his hands to convince investors. While Seven & i shares have climbed since Couche-Tard's interest became public in August 2024, they are down around 13% since the proposal was withdrawn this week and are off about a fifth in the year to date. Earlier this week Alimentation Couche-Tard flounced away from its pursuit as the global convenience store and fuel operator cited a 'lack of constructive engagement'. In a highly unusual step Alex Miller, President and CEO of Alimentation Couche-Tard, and Alain Bouchard, Founder and Executive Chairman, wrote in a letter to the Japanese company's board: "There has been no sincere or constructive engagement from 7&i that would facilitate the advancement of any proposal, contrary to comments made publicly by 7&i representatives. Rather, you have engaged in a calculated campaign of obfuscation and delay, to the great detriment of 7&i and its shareholders.' Among other things, Couche-Tard claimed that documents it received from Seven & i lacked important information and that executives had failed to show up at meetings. Seven & i Rebuts Claims Seven & i said in a rebuttal that it was disappointed by Couche-Tard's decision, claiming the Couche-Tard letter contained 'numerous inaccurate statements' and maintained that its special committee had taken part in 'sincere and constructive discussions.' In May, things looked very different. Couche-Tard and Seven & i had entered into a nondisclosure agreement to advance discussions and began looking for potential buyers for their overlapping U.S. convenience stores in a move to mitigate antitrust concerns. In its letter, Couche-Tard maintained there was a 'a clear path to U.S. regulatory approval.' For Seven & I's part, further investor-friendly efforts will be tough to enact, given that it has already taken major steps to overhaul the business and is set to sell off some retail operations in a $5.4 billion deal that will close September. It is also taking steps to bolster its shares with a five-year, circa $13.5 million buyback. But so far that has failed to move the dial, especially as some of the funding was due to come from an initial public offering of the U.S. business. Couche-Tard's exit has raised questions over that plan. Seven & i Looks To Reform However, should leave Seven & i clear to pursue growth and profitability in its convenience stores business, which investors have been pushing for. Indeed, Seven & i has previously reformed after external pressure. In 2016, concerns raised by activist fund Third Point over executive appointments resulted in the exit of former chairman Toshifumi Suzuki. Seven & i Holdings could yet be a takeover target. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP) (Photo by KAZUHIRO ... More NOGI/AFP via Getty Images) And ValueAct Capital Management's campaign led to Seven & i selling its Sogo and Seibu Co. department stores to Fortress Investment Group in 2022 for $1.7 billion, although it failed to oust then CEO Ryuichi Isak. For Seven & i, while operating profit for the March-thru-May rose 9.7% year-on-year to $438 million, it was the second-lowest quarterly result in the past decade and domestic same-store sales remained flat, while revenue remained weak in the U.S. While Couche-Tard may have stepped away, its decision to make its views public could potentially attract other bidders or activist investors, or prompt the resurrection of a management buyout by Seven & i's founding Ito family. The underperfroming share price also makes Seven & i a prime candidate to be taken private. Indeed, while Couche-Tard has placed the blame squarely on Seven & i's management, some analysts have argued that the failure of the deal was simply because the offer from was not big enough to counter Seven & i's opposition.
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Secret tensions behind departure of Elon Musk's most important female CEO Linda Yaccarino
The sudden exit of the top executive at Elon Musk 's X has exposed months of secret tensions that had been brewing behind closed doors. CEO Linda Yaccarino announced her departure from the company on Wednesday morning, saying she had 'decided to step down' after leading a 'historic business turnaround' at the social platform. Insiders believe her toxic relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire is what really finally drove her out. Sources told Status that Musk had completely lost confidence in his handpicked chief, who joined X in 2023 after 12 years at NBCUniversal. 'He put her on notice last year,' a source told Status of the CEO, who's job was to lure advertisers back to X after Musk bought the company in 2022. Instead, she became a messenger for advertisers' complaints about the platform, which 'Musk has no patience for,' according to Status. 'Elon found a lot of the advertiser requests around brand safety to be tedious at best and Linda became the voice of all that,' Lou Paskalis, an advertising executive and friend of Yaccarino, told the outlet. 'Over time, it created some scar tissue with him. She was advocating [addressing] things that he didn't want to do, starting with his antics on the platform.' Insiders believe Yaccarino's toxic relationship with the Tesla and SpaceX billionaire is what really finally drove her out The pair also reportedly clashed over their working styles. Musk 'preferred his team to communicate in quick-fire bulleted emails or Signal messages and would get frustrated at Yaccarino's polished presentations and emails,' sources told the Wall Street Journal. The final blow came in March when Musk's AI company xAI acquired X, effectively pushing Yaccarino aside and making it clear advertising wasn't the future. 'That was really telling to me,' Paskalis told Status. 'There is no way to see that as something that didn't limit or constrain Linda's access to Elon.' In recent weeks, there was talk that Yaccarino would be pushed even further down the chain of command. Her announcement came just after xAI's chatbot, Grok, praised Adolf Hitler and made a string of deeply antisemitic posts on the platform. The bot began repeatedly referring to itself as 'MechaHitler' and said that Hitler would have 'plenty' of solutions to 'restore family values' to America. Yaccarino announced the news of her departure in a post on X, thanking Musk for entrusting her with 'the responsibility of protecting free speech' The company said it had removed 'inappropriate' social media posts on Wednesday following complaints from users. These posts followed Musk's announcement that he was taking measures to ensure the AI bot was more 'politically incorrect.' Yaccarino, 61, now faces the challenge of moving on, after two years of defending Musk's behavior has left her 'decimated.' When she joined X, she was one of America's most respected advertising executives.
Entrepreneur
09-07-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as CEO of Elon Musk's X
Linda Yaccarino announced on Tuesday that she was leaving her role as X's chief executive. Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as X's CEO after two years, she wrote on the platform. "I'm incredibly proud of the X team," Yaccarino wrote. "The historic business turnaround we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable. We started with the critical early work necessary to prioritize the safety of our users—especially children, and to restore advertiser confidence. This team has worked relentlessly from groundbreaking innovations like Community Notes, and, soon, X Money to bringing the most iconic voices and content to the platform." Related: Who Is Linda Yaccarino? Everything to Know About Twitter's New CEO After two incredible years, I've decided to step down as CEO of ?. When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I'm immensely grateful to him for entrusting me… — Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 9, 2025 X owner Elon Musk replied to the post with a short: "Thank you for your contributions." Yaccarino began as CEO of X in May of 2023, after Musk bought the company, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion. At the time, Yaccarino said her mission was the make the app a "global town square." Yaccarino did not give a reason for her departure, nor did she announce what's next. The New York Times reports that Yaccarino told employees earlier this week about her plans. Related: 'Futures Are Intertwined': Elon Musk xAI Buys His Own Social Media Platform, X, in a $33 Billion Deal
