Here are the top reads on deals and financial services over the last week,
Shopify soars above RBC as founder catapults toward richest Canadian: The white-hot run of Shopify shares has widened the company’s lead over Royal Bank of Canada for the title of the country’s most valuable company – and added billions to founder Tobias Lutke’s net worth, moving him closer to becoming the richest Canadian. (David Milstead)
Biotech blind spot: How Canada’s big investors missed the boom happening right now: While U.S. funds and individual investors are cashing in on some of the country’s recent biotech successes, Canadian institutional investors – with the exception of Quebec capital providers touting regional economic development agendas, the federal Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and a lone domestic investment by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board – have been nowhere to be found. (Sean Silcoff)
Big Tech can’t keep rising when the economy is sinking: Big Tech worshippers are treating the sector as both a defensive play and an enduring growth story, one that can miraculously insulate itself from the hell zone that is the broader economy. It can’t. (Eric Reguly)
Canadian banks’ boycott of Facebook unlikely to make a major dent in social media company’s coffers: By halting ad spending on Facebook Inc. for a month, Canada’s largest banks are sending a message to the social media giant that it must do more to curb hate speech and misinformation, but the lost revenue is unlikely to leave much of a mark. (James Bradshaw)
Cirque files for creditor protection as existing shareholders make restructuring bid: Cirque du Soleil filed for creditor protection on Monday and unveiled a plan that would see its current owners and the Quebec government inject US$300-million to restart the entertainment company, while paying lenders a fraction of what they are owed. (Andrew Willis)
Brookfield puts US$1-billion behind real estate: Brookfield Asset Management Inc. is putting US$1-billion behind its belief that investors are undervaluing its real estate partnership in the punishing era of COVID-19. (David Milstead)
Fitch downgrades Alberta’s credit rating: Alberta’s credit rating was downgraded Tuesday, hours after the province released a multibillion-dollar economic recovery plan in an attempt to climb out of the economic wreckage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a collapse in world oil prices. (Emma Graney)
Wirecard scandal a ‘massive criminal act,’ head of Germany’s financial watchdog says: The head of Germany’s financial watchdog on Thursday called the accounting scandal at Wirecard AG “a massive criminal act,” while Deutsche Bank said it was considering support for the collapsed payments company’s banking unit. (Reuters)
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