Business briefs
Rometty to step down as IBM chief executive
Ginni Rometty is stepping down as chief executive of IBM. Ms. Rometty, who became CEO in 2012, struggled to achieve growth at the technology giant as it made the transition to new fields like cloud computing and artificial intelligence. She will be replaced in April by Arvind Krishna, who now runs the company’s cloud computing business.
Juul faces reckoning after marked down investment
For Juul Labs, the troubled king of vaping, the blows keep coming. Marlboro cigarette maker Altria Group, which poured nearly $13 billion into the vaping startup in late 2018, valuing it at $38 billion, said it had marked down its investment for a second time by $4.1 billion. That leaves the value of its 35% stake at just $4.2 billion — or about a third of its initial worth.
Unilever reviews future of Lipton tea, ponders sale
Lipton owner Unilever is weighing a sale of one of its bestknown brands. The Anglo-Dutch giant initiated a review of its global tea business, which includes the more than century-old label and generates sales of almost 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion). The move comes after the company’s slowest quarterly growth in a decade. Unilever is following a consumer shift to coffee.
Nordstrom latest big retailer to sell second-hand items
Nordstrom will begin selling second-hand apparel online and in its New York flagship store this week, the latest attempt by the 119year-old company to appeal to changing consumer tastes. It joins Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Madewell, among others, in carving out a place for used clothing, shoes and handbags alongside new ones.