Walmart CEO Retires, US Head to Lead Retailer Into AI Age | Bloomberg Intelligence

Walmart’s surprise was mostly in timing, not in direction: Doug McMillan will retire in February and John Furner, the current head of Walmart US, will take over. The retail analyst argued that McMillan’s legacy is less about one strategy than a major cultural shift, turning Walmart into a more technology-led company that experiments, learns, and pivots faster. She said Furner is not expected to change tactics much, because Walmart is already gaining share, growing sales and profit, and leaning harder into AI, digital sales, and its online marketplace.

Merck’s $9.2 billion deal for Cidara Therapeutics was presented as a pipeline move ahead of the patent loss of Keytruda, which the health reporter said drove almost half of Merck’s revenue last year. She said pharma companies often face this concentration problem and are responding with a “string of pearls” M&A strategy: smaller, targeted acquisitions rather than one giant replacement bet. The report also noted that dealmaking in infectious disease may draw more attention from health regulators depending on the broader policy climate.

Verizon’s potential plan to cut as many as 15,000 jobs signals a major reset under Dan Schulman. The telecom analyst said Schulman wants to shift Verizon from a network-first pitch to a consumer-first strategy and warned that telecom cost cuts can go too far if they cut into core capabilities. He also said wireless carriers need growth in adjacencies, not just price competition. On EchoStar, he said the long-awaited spectrum sale shows the company is finally monetizing assets after years of trying to build a network that never attracted enough subscribers.