Business News in Brief - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Smokers prevail in Supreme Court case

The U.S. Supreme Court turned away the tobacco industry's effort to derail lawsuits by thousands of Florida smokers, leaving cigarette-makers exposed to potentially billions of dollars in liability.

The justices on Monday rejected appeals by units of Altria Group Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC in eight cases that totaled more than $120 million in awards to smokers and their family members.

The appeals, which argued that the companies weren't being given a fair chance to mount a defense, were similar to previous industry bids turned away by the high court in recent years.

The tobacco companies said in court papers that they face another 2,300 pending suits. The cases that have gone to trial have produced more than $800 million in judgments, they said.

The companies say the smokers shouldn't be able to rely on a jury's factual findings in a class-action case against the industry 20 years ago. Lower courts have said many of those findings, including the conclusion that the companies conspired to conceal the dangers of smoking, can serve as the starting point for individual suits.

-- Bloomberg News

GE to sell biopharma division for $21.4B

General Electric agreed Monday to sell its biopharmaceutical business to Danaher for about $21.4 billion, as the troubled industrial giant sells off divisions to pay down debt and steady its business.

In selling the business, GE took another big step in what has become a drastic slimming-down of what was once an American corporate giant.

Under the terms of the deal, Danaher will pay about $21 billion in cash and assume about $400 million in pension liabilities at the GE unit.

GE has struggled in recent years with a bevy of problems. Under a succession of leaders, the company has announced the sale or spinoff of enormous divisions, whittling down operations like finance and energy.

Last summer, GE said it planned to spin off its health care division -- including the biopharmaceutical unit, which sells equipment and software to biotechnology companies -- and sell its stake in a big oil-field services business, Baker Hughes.

-- The New York Times

Roche to buy gene-therapy developer

Spark Therapeutics Inc., founded by researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has agreed to be sold to Switzerland-based Roche Holding AG for $4.3 billion, the gene-therapy developer said Monday.

The hospital's foundation will collect about $430 million of that total for its Spark shares -- a big return for the hospital's $33 million investment since 2013. Venture capitalists and investment funds that backed the company early will also profit.

"This is a resounding affirmation of the vibrancy of the genetic engineering field," and for Spark co-founder Katherine High, a "terrific" pioneer, said Richard Vague, founder of Philadelphia-based Gabriel Investments and a donor and investor in biotech research.

Roche is also taking over about $500 million in Spark debt, for a total deal value of about $4.8 billion. The sale price is the biggest payout for a gene-therapy company since doctors at research hospitals including Children's Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania began gene-therapy trials in the 1990s, in hopes of giving people the power to fight lethal diseases using their own improved cells.

Spark said it will continue operating in Philadelphia as an independent company within Roche, a $57 billion (yearly sales) multinational that sells treatments for diseases from acne to cancer.

-- Tribune News Service

AT&T awaits decision on Time Warner

AT&T Inc. could learn as soon as today whether it can finally move forward with its acquisition of Time Warner and put behind it a lengthy legal battle with U.S. antitrust enforcers over the $85 billion deal.

The company and the Justice Department are awaiting a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington about the government's effort to reverse a lower-court decision allowing the merger. Oral arguments were held in December.

Under an agreement with the Justice Department, AT&T promised to put Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting in a business unit separate from AT&T's DirecTV business. It also agreed to a firewall between the two. That agreement, which was intended to prevent a full integration of the companies if the government prevails in its appeal, expires Thursday.

Because the appeals court issues its opinions on Tuesday and Friday mornings, it would have to rule today on the Justice Department's appeal before AT&T can end the separation agreement and proceed with the integration.

The appeals court is considering a June decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejecting the government's case that AT&T should be prevented from buying Time Warner on antitrust grounds. Leon said the U.S. failed to show that AT&T would be able to raise prices for Time Warner programming sold to competing cable and satellite-TV companies, leading to higher prices for subscribers.

-- Bloomberg News

Trial in Roundup weedkiller suit starts

SAN FRANCISCO -- A jury in federal court in San Francisco will decide whether Roundup weedkiller caused a California man's cancer in a trial starting Monday that plaintiffs' attorneys say could help determine the fate of hundreds of similar lawsuits.

Edwin Hardeman, 70, is the second plaintiff to go to trial of thousands around the country who claim agribusiness giant Monsanto's weedkiller causes cancer.

Monsanto says studies have established that the active ingredient in Roundup, glyphosate, is safe.

"There is a mountain of evidence," Hardeman's attorney, Brent Wisner, said outside court. "This company needs to get straight and be honest with its customers and say, listen, there is evidence it's associated with cancer and let people make a choice about whether or not they use the product."

A San Francisco jury in August awarded another man $289 million after determining Roundup caused his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. A judge later slashed the award to $78 million, and Monsanto has appealed.

Many government regulators have rejected a link between cancer and glyphosate. Monsanto has vehemently denied such a connection, saying hundreds of studies have established that the chemical is safe.

-- The Associated Press

Business on 02/26/2019

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