Kroll CEO considers listing shares again, El Confidencial reports
Although there are no concrete plans on the table, he said future options include going public again, El Confidencial reported.
"We would be a much better listed company now than we were 15 years ago," he was quoted as saying.
A group of investors led by private equity funds Further Global and Stone Point Capital bought Kroll, which was previously known as Duff & Phelps, for $4.2 billion in 2020.
The two funds and Kroll did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Los Angeles Times
12 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Fox News hosts were determined to help Trump stay in office after 2020 election, legal filing says
The 2020 presidential election is history, but a legal dispute over Fox News' reporting on President Trump's false claims of voter fraud is heating up. A motion for summary judgment by voting equipment company Smartmatic filed Tuesday in New York Supreme Court laid out in detail how phony allegations that it manipulated votes to swing the election to Joe Biden were amplified on Fox News. The motion also described how the Fox News Media hosts who are defendants in the suit — the late Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business — were allegedly committed to helping Trump prove his fraud theories so he could remain in office. 'I work so hard for the President and the party,' Pirro wrote in a text to Ronna McDaniel, then chair of the Republican National Committee. Pirro left Fox News in May to become U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion in damages, claiming that the network's airing of the false statements hurt the London-based company's ability to expand its business in the U.S. Fox News settled a similar suit from Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million in 2023. The motion alleged that on-air hosts repeated the fraud claims even though executives and producers were told they were false. The Fox News research department, known as the 'Brainroom,' allegedly informed network producers that Smartmatic's role in the 2020 election was limited to Los Angeles County and that the company's software was not used in Dominion voting machines, another false claim made on the air. Fox News maintains the network's reporting on President Trump's false claims were newsworthy and protected by the 1st Amendment. But part of the company's legal strategy has been focused on minimizing the damage claims. Fox News has asserted that any problems Smartmatic has experienced in attracting new business are rooted not in its reporting but in the federal investigation into the company's activities with overseas governments. Last year, Smartmatic's founder, Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, and two other company officials were indicted by the U.S. attorney's office and charged with bribing Philippine officials in order to get voting machine contracts in the country in 2016. While the Trump camp's assertions that the election was fixed were not believed throughout Fox News and parent company Fox Corp., the conservative-leaning network gave continued to give them oxygen to keep its audience tuned in, the motion alleged. The motion described a 'pivot' that occurred on Nov. 8, 2020, when then-Fox News Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan asked Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott to address the decline in the network's ratings after Biden was declared the winner of the election. The network also looked at research to evaluate why viewers were leaving. 'The conclusion reached based on performance analytics: give the audience more election fraud,' the court document stated. Such thinking, the filing said, permeated the company, already in a panic over losing viewers to right-leaning network Newsmax. The upstart outlet saw a ratings surge after Biden's win due to its unwavering support of Trump's claims. 'Think about how incredible our ratings would be if Fox went ALL in on STOP THE STEAL,' Fox News host Jesse Watters said in a text to his colleague Greg Gutfeld. Throughout November and December 2020, the three hosts named in the suit, Dobbs, Pirro and Bartiromo, repeatedly featured Trump's attorneys Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell as guests. They spread the falsehoods that Smartmatic software was used in Dominion voting machines and altered millions of votes. Smartmatic's work in Los Angeles during the 2020 election was meant to be an entry point for the company to expand its domestic business. The company's defamation suit claims that Fox News obliterated those efforts by presenting the false fraud claims. But Fox News believes that issues with Smartmatic's $282-million contract with Los Angeles County could help advance its case. On Aug. 1, federal prosecutors filing a legal brief alleging that taxpayer funds from the county went into a slush fund held by a shell company to help pay for its illegal activities. Federal prosecutors handling the case involving Smartmatic's business in the Philippines said they plan to detail similar alleged schemes out of L.A. County and Venezuela to show that the bribery fits a larger pattern. Fox News attorneys have filed a brief asking for county records that they believe will help bolster their case. The network is also expected to try to get the Smartmatic indictments in front of the court to raise doubts about the company's reputation. A Smartmatic representative said Fox News' records request is a diversion tactic. 'Fox lies and when caught they lie again to distract,' a Smartmatic representative said in a statement. 'Fox's latest filing is just another attempt to divert attention from its long-standing campaign of falsehoods and defamation against Smartmatic.' The company added that it abided with the law in Los Angeles County and 'every jurisdiction where we operate.' Smartmatic's Tuesday court filing also included information that contradicted public statements Fox News made at the time. The document alleged that Fox News fired political analyst Chris Stirewalt and longtime Washington bureau executives Bill Sammon for their involvement in calling the state of Arizona for Biden on election night. The early call of the close result in the state upset the Trump camp and alienated his supporters. At the time, Fox News said Stirewalt departed as part of a reorganization and Sammon retired. But the motion said Rupert Murdoch himself signed off on the decision to sever Stirewalt and Sammon from the company in an effort to assuage angry viewers who defected. The motion cited a communication from Dana Perino, co-host of Fox News show 'The Five,' describing a phone call with Stirewalt after his dismissal. 'I explained to him — you were right, you didn't cave, and you got fired for doing the right thing,' Perino said. 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43 minutes ago
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Asia markets set for muted start as investors assess S&P 500's four-day losing streak
Asia-Pacific markets were poised for a muted start to the day as investors assessed the four-day losing streak for the S&P 500, led by declines in tech stocks. Investors in the region are awaiting India's HSBC Composite flash purchasing managers' index reading for August, which provides an early snapshot of the performance of the private sector economy, expected later in the day. Economists polled by Reuters expect it to come in at 60.5, compared to 61.1 in the month before. Japan's Nikkei 225 was set to open flat, with the futures contract in Chicago at 42,880 while its counterpart in Osaka last traded at 42,820, against the index's Wednesday close of 42,888.55. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was set to start the day lower, with futures tied to the benchmark at 8,902, compared with the index's last close of 8,918. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index is slated to open flat with futures tied to the index at 25,168, compared with the HSI's last close of 25,165.94. U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asia hours. Overnight stateside, two of the three key benchmarks ended the session in declines as tech stocks dragged the market lower. The broad market S&P 500 index slipped 0.24% to close at 6,395.78, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 0.67% and settled at 21,172.86. Wednesday marked a fourth day of losses for the S&P 500 and a second negative session for the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was the outlier, adding 16.04 points, or 0.04%, and settling at 44,938.31.
