Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making the headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: Clothing manufacturer Gildan Activewear Inc. aired some laundry in public, announcing that a nasty proxy battle, which unfolded over six months ultimately cost the company US$76.8-million, including US$33-million in legal and advisory fees. On Thursday, the Canadian clothing maker of T-shirts and fleece apparel published an accounting of the battle between Gildan’s former board of directors and a group of shareholders led by U.S. investment firm Browning West.
Also: CGI, the Montreal-based consulting company, announced a new quarterly cash dividend of 15 cents per share starting in the first quarter of 2025, a rarity among Canadian tech companies. And BCE announced its earnings jumped 63 per cent year-over-year to $537-million in the company’s second quarter.
a. Sell EV passenger cars. What a mess. The Liberals want more Canadians to drive EVs. However, they are feeling pressure to follow the United States and the European Union and impose large tariffs on Chinese makers of bargain-priced EVs. This would protect local jobs, but it would also raise the price of imported EVs and deter more Canadians from buying one.
c. Ticketmaster Canada. The investigation follows the U.S. parent of Ticketmaster Canada’s disclosure this month that a data breach may have affected the personal information of millions of users worldwide. Oops.
c. One held rates steady, one cut, one raised. The Federal Reserve held rates steady (although it hinted at a cut in September). The Bank of England cut. The Bank of Japan raised. And here you thought all central bankers were alike.
b. U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump. Mr. Trump told a bitcoin convention in Nashville that he would make the U.S. the global “crypto capital” and establish a strategic bitcoin stockpile if elected. His new enthusiasm is quite a shift from his stand three years ago when he called bitcoin “a disaster waiting to happen.”
d. A consortium of Indigenous communities. TC Energy has been selling assets to reduce its debt load. The consortium that is purchasing the minority stake includes 72 Indigenous communities in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
d. It wants to settle allegations that it used biometric data of users without permission. The lawsuit stems from Facebook’s now-discontinued facial-recognition feature. Texas said the feature violated state laws against capturing or selling a user’s biometric information, such as their face, without the user’s permission.
a. Declaring bankruptcy. The judgment reversed two lower court decisions. It further constrains the power of market watchdogs, which already struggle to collect many of the fines they impose.
b. He withdrew his offering after investors showed little interest. Mr. Ackman initially whittled his goal down to US$2-billion then scrubbed the entire deal this week. He says he will return with a revised plan.
b. It laid off much of its work force. Shares of the Saint-Jerome, Que.-based company crashed after the company said it would cut another 30 per cent of its workforce. The company’s shares, which hit $24.21 in 2021, slid below $1.
c. Miami. Low taxes and great beaches are hard to beat. The pandemic helped accelerate a mass migration of legal, financial and tech companies to Florida. The influx is driving rents for high-end offices to record peaks.
a. CGI, the Montreal-based consulting company, said it would start paying a quarterly cash dividend of 15 cents per share in the first quarter of 2025. It will become only the fourth of the 10 largest technology companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange to pay a dividend.
d. About $700-million. Morningstar DBRS estimates the insured losses from the Jasper fire will top $700-million, with tourism businesses making additional claims. This would make it Canada’s second-costliest fire, exceeded only by the 2016 inferno in Fort McMurray, Alta.