10 things you need to know in markets, October 16

Good morning! Here’s what you need to know in markets on Tuesday.

Reuters

1.
Paul Allen, who cofounded Microsoft with Bill Gates,
died Monday afternoon after a battle with
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, his family confirmed to Business Insider.
He was 65. Allen, a tech billionaire, was a philanthropist
and the owner of the Seattle Seahawks and the Portland Trail
Blazers. He operated Vulcan Ventures, a venture-capital fund.

2.
Asian stocks rose modestly on Tuesday, gaining a
firmer footing after a week of heavy losses, although cooling
factory-gate inflation in China and increasing tensions between
Saudi Arabia and the West have capped gains. European stocks
are expected to open slightly higher.

3.
Twilio, the $7.4 billion company that helps apps and websites
send texts and make calls, is acquiring SendGrid in an all
stock deal valued around $2 billion. The transaction,
which was
announcedMonday, is expected to close in the first half of
2019. SendGrid, which is based in Denver, sells an email
marketing platform that enables its customers to send
newsletters, marketing and email confirmations en masse.

4. Activist investor
Carl Icahn reported an increased 8.3% stake in Dell tracking
stock on Monday, as he looks to block a proposed
plan by the computer maker to return to the public market without
an IPO. Dell Technologies in July said it would pay $21.7
billion in cash and stock to buy back shares tied to its interest
in software company VMware. Icahn and other hedge fund
investors have resisted the plan, saying the proposed deal
massively undervalues the tracking stock.

5. Thousands of Google employees participated
in an
internal protest
 against the
company’s participation in a high-tech military project earlier
this year, but the unprecedented revolt at the company had little
influence on management’s decision-making, according to
CEO Sundar Pichai. “Throughout Google’s history we’ve given
our employees a lot of voice and say in it, but
we don’t run the company by holding referendums,” Pichai
said.

6. China’s
third-quarter growth will slow to its weakest pace since the
global financial crisis, according to a Reuters poll
of 68 economists. Analysts said more support measures will be
needed as risks to China’s growth outlook have increased since
the second half of the year. GDP likely grew 6.6% in
July-September from a year earlier, slowing from the previous
quarter’s 6.7% and hitting the weakest pace since the first
quarter of 2009.

7. Volvo
warned on Tuesday that an emissions control component used in its
trucks was degrading more quickly than expected,
which could cause engines to exceed emission limits for nitrogen
oxides. The company said that costs to fix the problem could
be large and that it was in the process of informing authorities
in various markets.

8. Cryptocurrency exchange
Coinbase has opened an office in Dublin, it said on
Tuesday, joining the growing ranks of banks and financial firms
with major British businesses developing European Union outposts
as Britain’s exit from the bloc looms. San Francisco-based
Coinbase, one of the biggest US exchanges, said the Dublin office
would let it keep rights to sell services in EU countries even
after Brexit. Its non-US headquarters will remain in London, it
added.

9. Germany’s
carmakers only have a 50% chance of surviving as leading
players in the auto industry unless they transform
to meet new regulations and adapt their supply chains, Volkswagen
CEO Herbert Diess said on Tuesday. The need to produce
batteries and electric cars, rather than combustion engines, and
the emergence of new geopolitical threats, is forcing automakers
to accelerate deep-seated reforms which pose an existential
threat to some players, he said.

10.
Fourteen Iranian border guards were kidnapped on the border with
Pakistan on Tuesday, an official was quoted as
saying by state news agency IRNA. The official said the
kidnappers were members of a terrorist group, but gave no more
details.