Johnson & Johnson, one of the worlds biggest makers of medical devices, said it will purchase Abiomed Inc. for about $17.3 billion, building on its portfolio of technology to assist heart function.

J&J will pay $380 a share in cash, according to a statement Tuesday. That represents a premium of about 50% over Abiomeds closing price on Monday and is close to the stocks 52-week high in November 2021. Abiomed shareholders will also receive as much as $35 a share in additional cash if certain goals are achieved, the companies said. 

J&J is planning to spin off its consumer unit next year and is looking to focus on higher returns from its pharmaceutical and medical technology divisions. Abiomed makes almost all of its money through the sale of Impella heart pumps small devices that are threaded through arteries into the heart to help it move blood through the body.

Abiomed shares rose 51% to $379.59 at 9:32 a.m. in New York, while J&J fell less than 1%.

In general, Impella devices are used when a patients heart isnt pumping enough blood to oxygenate the body, to increase the rate of blood flow, or for a patient undergoing a high-risk heart surgery, to help the heart function during the procedure. 

Abiomed has a monopoly position in mechanical circulatory support, an extensive product pipeline, and was expected to return to mid-teens revenue growth in the outyears as a stand-alone company, said Marie Thibault, an analyst at BTIG LLC, in a note Tuesday. 

The company was founded as Applied Biomedical Corp. in 1981 by David Lederman with the goal of creating the first artificial heart. He took it public in 1987 and stepped down in 2004 to make way for current Chief Executive Officer Michael Minogue, a former General Electric Co. executive and Desert Storm veteran. Minogue plans to retire after the deal with J&J closes, at which time Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Greenfield will take the helm as Abiomeds president. 

J&J Outlook

The Abiomed purchase is the first big deal for J&Js Joaquin Duato, who took over as the companys CEO in January. Hes been at the company for roughly three decades and was the architect behind the companys breakup. In an interview with Bloomberg earlier this year, Duato said that J&J must put more resources into developing medical technologies of the future.

This is a unique moment deeply rooted in the commitment to our credo that has set Johnson & Johnson apart for well over a century, Duato told investors on an earnings call. Duato said that the deal between the two companies will complement Abiomeds capabilities and move J&J into higher-growth markets, while accelerating near and long term sales and earnings growth.

Abiomed had $937 million in cash and zero debt as of the end of September. Its sale price to J&J corresponds to an enterprise cash value of about $16.6 billion, the companies said. The transaction will take place through a tender offer and is expected to be completed by the end of March.

J&J Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk told investors that the deal would be neutral or slightly negative for earnings in the first year, then add 5 cents a share to income starting in 2024 and more after that.

Breakup Fee

If Abiomed accepts a superior offer or the merger agreement is terminated, the company would need to pay J&J $550 million, according to a filing. Its unlikely another acquirer will surface given the premium J&J is paying, Thibault said. 

JPMorgan Chase & Co. served as financial adviser to J&J, with Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP as legal counsel. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP represented Abiomed. 

Danvers, Massachusetts-based Abiomed said Tuesday its second-quarter revenue rose 11% on a constant-currency basis to $266 million, with some of its biggest sales gains coming in the Japanese market. 

With assistance from Ike Swetlitz.

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China is rolling out tighter celebrity endorsement guidelines and barring entertainers and celebrities from promoting products online that dont align with the countrys socialist core values.

Private tutoring, health foods, tobacco products, as well as healthcare and medical equipment are among the list of industries the Chinese Communist Party no longer wants celebrities advertising, according to a notice issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Radio and Television Administration and three other governmental organizations.

The new regulations also want to ban companies from sponsoring celebrities who have engaged in illegal behavior or who have lapsed morals, Chinas ultra-nationalistic tabloid the Global Times reported. This includes behavior like drug addiction, gambling, drunk driving, indecent assault, tax evasion, and fraud.

The Global Times which operates under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Partys flagship newspaper, the Peoples Daily reports that the new guidelines come after chaos in the celebrity endorsement market, with some celebrities having conducted illegal or false endorsement and individual companies using performers who lack moral discipline to endorse their products in pursuit of profit.

The move to overhaul the influencer and celebrity endorsement market comes just a week and a half after the Chinese Communist partys regular five-year congress in Beijing and signals a new phase in President Xi Jinpings campaign to reform the countrys moral values and youth culture under the banner of common prosperity.

Celebrities should consciously practice socialist core values in their advertising endorsement activities, the rules stated, according to the Financial Times, and should conform to social morals and traditional virtues.

Chinas new rules

Much like the West, China is grappling with misbehaving celebrities and nationwide scandals and corporate clients and advertisers often find themselves stuck in the middle.

A recent example is top movie star Kris Wu, who acted in several No. 1 box office hits including Mr. Six and and Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back, as well as the Hollywood film XXX: Return of Xander Cage. Wu lost all his endorsements after he was arrested and detained in August 2021 by Beijing Police on suspicion of rape.

After his conviction, Wu was embroiled in a contract dispute with Chinese kitchen appliances brand Vatti, which went viral on Sina Weibo in November 2021 with a hashtag on the contract dispute reaching 590 million views.

Another example is stand-up comedian Li Dan, who was fined more than 870,000 yuan ($134,347) for an ad for Beijing-based lingerie company Ubras that was deemed sexist for women. Dan called the underwear a career lifejacket for women. Beijing authorities fined Dan for endorsing a product he had not used himself.

The guidelines are a public warning about the incidents involving celebrity endorsements in recent years. This will help to rectify the endorsement chaos as well as making celebrities realize that their cultural image is linked to public perception, Tan Fei, one of the most important film critics and public opinion leaders in China, told Global Times.

Tan said celebrity endorsements are not just about product promotion, but they also export culture and value. Companies and celebrities must not only pay attention to economic benefits but also to social benefits and social responsibility, he said.

The latest guidelines scrutinizing the moral character of celebrities also come amid a wider push to discourage the anti-work lying flat youth culture in China.

Last week, Xi visited the Hongqi canal in central Chinas Henan province a 50-mile-long irrigation canal often used as a model for what Chinese workers could achieve with local mass initiative and gave a speech warning the younger generation to abandon the finicky lifestyle and complacent attitude.

We need to educate people, especially the youths, with the Hongqi canal spirit that Chinas socialism is won by hard work, struggles, and even sacrifice of lives. This was not only true in the past but also true in the new era, Xi said, according to Chinese state media.

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What began as a safety measure to distinguish real people from impersonators on Twitter will almost certainly become a perk exclusively reserved for paying accounts.

Elon Musk, the reluctant new owner of Twitter, confirmed the plans on Tuesday in a reply to author Stephen Kings own horror at a report he will soon need to pay $240 a year for the privilege of keeping his accounts official blue check verification. 

Kings visceral reaction came after The Verge said Musk put engineers on a deadline to develop a paying verification product by Nov. 7 or lose their job. Those blue check Twitter accountsestimated to number around 400,000that fail to accept the for-pay offer in 90 days would forfeit their verified status. 

We need to pay the bills somehow! the tech entrepreneur wrote, before floating a lower price. Twitter cannot rely entirely on advertisers. How about $8?

However, demand for such a paid service is extremely limited as evidenced by a poll from Musk lieutenant Jason Calacanis, who asked Twitter users what they would be prepared to pay for a blue check.

Out of the nearly 2 million accounts that have responded so far, more than four out of five refused flat out. Another 18% were willing in theory at least to pay at least a minimum of $5 per month, but there is a margin of error as not all would likely fully convert and nearly 5% of all users are, according to Twitter, fake or spam accounts.

On Monday, King, who got a lot of support for his comments, wasnt biting at Musks discounted price offer either: It aint the money, its the principal of the thing.

Indeed, data suggests the companys limited attempt at creating a premium serviceTwitter Bluehas been a dismal failure after raising less than $4 million over a year. Calacanis even texted Musk in mid-April that Blues features were dogshit, adding its worth paying to turn it off!

Hitting up companies and other commercial interests that need official Twitter accounts for everything from sales lead generation to customer support is one possible avenue of increasing revenue. 

Yet paying fundamentally upends the purpose of a verified private account. If anyone can spend money to get a blue check, then it would no longer act as a universal tool for easily distinguishing valuable authentic accounts from possible fake ones. Plenty of important opinion-shaping individuals across the political spectrum could become open game for bad actors.

I got verified because I was being harassed and part of the harassment was accounts pretending to be me, wrote physicist and author Chandra Prescod-Weinstein on Sunday. Verification should be open to all and freebut its a safety thing.

Only way to defeat bots

There are deeper ramifications however. Twitter and other forms of social media have been a means for dissidents in autocracies and dictatorships to organize as well as a megaphone to express their political dissent. 

If a malevolent regime were to spend money to disseminate misinformation under the guise of verified accountsfor example on the time and place of a protestlives could potentially be at stake. 

Verification of accounts like journalists, media, human rights orgs, etc. isnt just a status signal or nice-to-have, said Courtney Radsch, a fellow at the Institute for Technology, Law & Policy in Los Angeles. Its a safety feature that ensures sources know theyre contacting the real account. This had life & death implications in Syria.

The current debate boils down to a thorny dilemma that surfaced after Musk paid dearly for the loss-making company: he now has to find a way to somehow deliver an acceptable return for his elite group of co-investors, which include the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Tesla CEO had attempted to ditch the deal entirely, citing a proliferation of bot and spam accounts. Legal experts said this was however a transparently flimsy argument that would never prevail, and Twitters board promptly sued to force him to go through with the deal. 

Sensing he would lose the case in a five-day expedited trial, and facing what could be an embarrassing plaintiff cross-examination, Musk acquiesced last month to pay the full amount agreed in April without even so much as a face-saving markdown in price.

Now the new owner, who has now changed his bio from chief twit to Twitter complaint hotline operator, said hitting up verified accounts was a vital prerequisite to improving the platforms experience for all 238 million daily active users.

I will explain the rationale in longer form before this is implemented, said Musk. It is the only way to defeat the bots and trolls.

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Crispin Odey has closed his flagship hedge fund and two others to new clients, hoping to keep assets at a manageable level following a record year. 

The main Odey European hedge fund, as well as the OEI MAC and Odey Swan funds, are no longer accepting new investors, his firm said in an announcement on its website dated Oct. 26. Existing clients can continue to add money.

The move marks a turnaround for Odey, whose leveraged bets on long-dated government bonds this year have powered a 193% surge in his main hedge fund to reverse years of losses. Money managers often restrict inflows so their funds dont get too big to quickly alter positions. 

We want to keep the AUM within a level that does not compromise our ability to maintain the strategys risk/reward profile, and consequently performance, Michael Ede, partner at Odey Asset Management, said in the announcement. This decision to soft close the funds will be kept under review. 

Odey European managed 402 million euros ($399 million) at the end of September, according to an investor document. The fund managed $1.8 billion of assets at its peak in 2015, but shrunk to as low as 93 million euros in early 2021 as it was burned by bets against stocks in booming markets. 

Odey is among a group of macro traders enjoying a stellar year as central banks start to unwind years of quantitative easing. Odey, along with peers such as Said Haidar and Michael Platt, have produced triple-digit returns. 

Crispin Odey oversees $1.5 billion for his London-based investment firm. 

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A man in southern China is keeping his 219 million yuan ($29.9 million) lottery jackpot a secret from his wife and child, saying he was worried that the winnings might make them lazy.

The man identified only as Mr. Li went alone to the lottery office in Nanning, in the southern region of Guangxi, to claim his prize, the Nanning Evening News reported. He wore a bright yellow costume that covered his head in photos showing him accepting the prize.

I didnt tell my wife and child for fear that they would be too complacent and would not work or work hard in the future, the man told the newspaper last week. 

He donated 5 million yuan to charity and said he hadnt decided what to do with the rest. He collects some 171.6 million yuan after taxes.

The man bought the winning ticket in a shop in Litang, a town of some 120,000 people just east of the regional capital of Nanning, the Nanning Evening News said. The day after he realized he won, he drove to the bigger city to present the ticket at the lottery headquarters.

I only slept in a hotel because I was afraid to go out and lose the lottery ticket, he said. 

Chinas central government runs lotteries to raise money for welfare and sports. Players in Guangxi pick six numbers on red balls and one on a blue ball. The man said his winning numbers were ones hed been playing for years: 2, 15, 19, 26, 27, 29 and 2.  

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Swedish retail giant Ikea has threatened legal action against an indie horror video game, demanding changes to its setting after the virtual location appeared to resemble the real-life furniture store a bit too closely. 

The game in question is a co-operative survival game called The Store is Closed, and was developed by the U.K.-based Jacob Shaw, under the studio name Ziggy. However, the game is yet to be released to the wider public and is still seeking funding through a campaign on Kickstarter, having raised just over $64,000 at the time of writing. 

The furniture store in the game is called STYR, the Swedish word for controls, and is described as infinite. Players must use their surroundings to fight off threats by building weapons, creating fortifications, and even constructing towers to find an escape. 

However, the similarities between the store and the game were just too much for Ikea. The company, which reached almost $40 billion in revenue last year, has issued a cease and desist letter, and the solo developer was given just 10 days to change the game and remove all indicia associated with the famous Ikea stores.

The response appears to have been triggered by direct comparisons by press organizations between the game and Ikea, while the game itself and any descriptions do not represent the store at any point.

Ikea cites False advertising

In the letter, Ikeas legal representatives, Fross Zelnick, pointed out some specifics which led to their complaint, including a blue and yellow sign with a Scandinavian name on the store, a blue box-like building, yellow vertical striped shirts identical to those worn by Ikea personnel, a gray path on the floor, furniture that looks like Ikea furniture, and product signage that looks like Ikea signage. 

They maintain that this constitutes unfair competition and false advertising. However, Shaw disputed the claims in a report by Kotaku, saying that the furniture in particular was always based on generic designs.

Despite disagreeing, Shaw is working on adhering to the companys demands: I was going to spend the last week of my Kickstarter preparing an update for all the new alpha testers, Shaw told Kotaku. Now Ive got to desperately revamp the entire look of the game so I dont get sued, he said. 

In a statement, a spokesperson from Ikea told Fortune: While we think its flattering that others are inspired by the Ikea brand, we must be diligent to ensure that the Ikea trademarks and trade dress are not misapplied.

Various elements of the video game currently correspond in appearance with the Ikea brand features. Weve reached out to the creator of the video and asked them to make changes to those elements to ensure that this is no longer the case. They expressed that they understand our request and agreed to make those changes. This should all be well in time for the expected 2024 launch of the game.

We wish the creator of the game the best of luck!.

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Weve emerged from a summer of unprecedented climate destruction. Wildfires raged across the western coast of North America, droughts ravaged European countries, and temperatures continued to rise across the globe. In September, Sacramento, California reached 116 Fahrenheit (47 Celsius), breaking a century-old heat record. 

The macroeconomic outlook is equally grim. Inflation is rising. Global GDP growth has slowed. A recession looms and geopolitical unrest persists. And in the center of this maelstrom comes the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change, also known as COP27. Its kicking off at an especially pivotal time. 

It would be easy to get weighed down with despair, but we need a way forward. COP27 presents two clear opportunities: One is to invest in green infrastructure. The other is to implement a funding plan that will finally account for how we make sure countries will meet the commitment theyve made to net-zero emissions by 2050. We need to evolve from pledges that cant be easily monitored to an actionable climate finance strategy with accountability. To put it simply, we need to talk about money. 

For decades, in the face of possible recessions, countries have spent on infrastructure to create jobs and stimulate the economy. It helps. Its how we jump-started our way out of the Great Depressionand it gave us public works that have endured for generations. Its time to make those investments green. The leaders at COP27 should choose to invest in technology that drives carbon reductionto keep greening our grid with renewable energy, building infrastructure with low-carbon concrete, and supporting carbon removal projects for the long term. 

A more difficultand more expensiveconversation will be the one around funding. It demands that we consider who creates so much of the worlds emissions, and who pays the price. While the U.S. and Europe now account for just under a third of the worlds emissions, in 1900 they made up 90%, and 85% by 1950. Meanwhile, emissions from China, India, and the rest of Asia have spikedbut that only happened in the second half of the 20th century. 

Last years COP26 concluded with a $40-billion annual commitment from richer nations to low- and middle-income countries for adaptation financing. Years before, those same nations promised $100 billion annually, set to start in 2020, and didnt deliver. Without accountability to ensure everyone stays on track, commitments are on-paper exercises. The year 2050 sounds like its a world away, but the steps required to see these promises through are extensive. We cant afford to put them off year after year. We need progress beyond pledges.

The Montreal Protocola landmark environmental agreement that regulates about 100 ozone-depleting chemicalsis one example of a successful approach. What makes it so effective is its funding mechanism. The multilateral fund, implemented by the United Nations and the World Bank, helps developing countries hit targets for reducing ozone-depleting substances. It also incentivizes manufacturing alternatives. Countries that didnt join couldnt buy ozone-depleting substances from countries that did, so the supply started to shrink. And it worked: The concentration of ozone-depleting chemicals in our atmosphere has decreased by 98% over the last 30 years. For COP27 to achieve the same success, the conference needs to address the burden developing countries now bear for the higher cost of alternatives, something developed countries didnt contend with as they reaped the benefits of inexpensive fossil fuels. 

The private sector has a role to play in this, too. Wed see faster, more effective progress if we could better incentivize businesses to participate in decarbonization now. Future-proofing our companies makes good economic sense. There is a raft of new solutions to pull carbon directly out of the air, convert organic waste for energy and storage, maximize the worlds largest carbon sink (ocean-based solutions), or even turn carbon into rock. We need to take chances on climate-driven entrepreneurs who are working to undo the damage caused to the planet.

In recent years, weve seen massive leaps in this field, including Climeworks opening their first large-scale direct air capture facility in Iceland and Charm Industrial recently delivering a proof of concept for processing waste plant material to create a carbon-storing liquid that can be permanently injected deep underground. 

We need to make more bets on the development of carbon removal technologies to have a substantial impact. Frontier is an advance market commitment (AMC) of $925M to purchase permanent carbon removal from companies building promising new solutions over the next nine years. The AMC model was successfully used a decade ago to speed up the development of pneumococcal vaccines for low-income countries, saving an estimated 700,000 lives. 

Shopify, together with Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, and McKinsey Sustainability, founded Frontierthe first attempt to apply the AMC model to carbon removal at scale. The combined demand signal is exactly what the market needs to accelerate the development of carbon removal solutions. 

COP27s challenges are greatbut its outcome could be greater: a concrete funding plan tied to emissions reductions. We know what the future will cost us. Are our leaders willing to pay the price?

Stacy Kauk is Shopifys head of sustainability and a member of the advisory board for Frontier.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

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