Toyota makes $1 billion ride-hailing bet in Singapore's Grab stake

Toyota Motor Corp. is making its largest bet to date on ride hailing with a $1 billion investment in Singapore’s Grab Holdings Inc. The Japanese auto manufacturer’s investment values Grab, Southeast Asia’s largest car-hailing service, at just over $10 billion, according to a person familiar with the transaction. A Toyota executive will be appointed to Grab’s board, and another Toyota employee will be seconded to Grab to as an executive officer, the carmaker said Wednesday. Automakers are taking steps toward a future where mobility services will make individual car-ownership less necessary, while trying to fend off technology giants targeting the same market. General Motors Co., Daimler AG and Honda Motor Co. are among manufacturers that are investing in ride-hailing applications and developing self-driving vehicles. “This is a good decision -- Toyota should not be late in this area,” said Tatsuo Yoshida, an equities analyst at Sawakami Asset Management Inc. in Tokyo. “Ride sharing is coming. For car companies, this is a painful reality, but it can be a business opportunity if they understand it correctly.”

Ex-SoftBank COO Nikesh Arora awarded $128 mn to lead Palo Alto networks

Nikesh Arora could become one of the highest-paid U.S. executives after being named to lead Palo Alto Networks Inc., which granted him a pay package worth about $128 million. Arora, 50, is entitled to equity awards worth as much as $126 million when he takes over as chief executive officer on June 6, the Santa Clara, California-based company said Monday in a regulatory filing. 

About half of it will vest only if the firm’s shares more than double, while the rest is tied to his remaining on the job. Arora, who spent two years at SoftBank Group Corp. as founder Masayoshi Son’s No. 2, became Japan’s best-compensated public company executive in 2015. Regulatory filings show that the tech giant dished out 31.5 billion yen ($290 million) in compensation and related expenses during his tenure, a sum that rivals Silicon Valley’s richest pay packages.

Walmart's Flipkart deal gets rude welcome from market, shares plunge 4%

Walmart Inc.’s deal to buy a controlling stake in India’s biggest online seller is meeting skepticism on Wall Street.

The world’s largest retailer will acquire a 77 percent holding in Flipkart Group for $16 billion, the companies said earlier Wednesday. Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and other shareholders will hold the remainder. The tie-up values the Indian e-commerce giant at about $20.8 billion and marks a blow against rival Amazon.com Inc. as the battle for e-commerce supremacy goes global.

The deal -- Walmart’s biggest ever -- gives it greater access to India’s e-commerce market, which Morgan Stanley has estimated will grow to $200 billion in about a decade. But it will take some time for the business to turn profitable, and analysts on a Wednesday morning call about the deal adopted a cautious tone. S&P Global Ratings changed its outlook on Walmart to negative.

“As Flipkart is expected to generate meaningful losses for at least the next few years, this is clearly an investment for the future,” Moody’s analyst Charlie O’Shea wrote in a note.

Walmart shares dropped as much as 4.2 percent to $82.12 as of 10:28 a.m. in New York -- the lowest intraday price since October. The company’s stock was already down 13 percent this year through Tuesday’s close.