The daily business briefing: June 27, 2023

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1. KPMG to lay off 5% of its U.S. employees
2. UnitedHealth to acquire home-health provider Amedisys for $3.3 billion
3. Eli Lilly drug produces biggest weight loss yet
4. Stock futures fall slightly ahead of economic data
5. Lithium ion battery pioneer John Goodenough dies at 100

published 27 June 2023

1. KPMG to lay off 5% of its U.S. employees

KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms, announced Monday it plans to lay off 5% of its roughly 39,000 U.S. employees. The company said the decision came after it was hit with "economic headwinds, coupled with historically low attrition." KPMG was the first Big Four firm to reduce its U.S. headcount when it cut about 2% of its U.S. jobs in February. The jobs in the latest layoffs will be cut over the rest of the 2023 financial year. "We do not take this decision lightly," KMPG told Reuters in an emailed statement. "However, we believe it is in the best long-term interest of our firm and will position us for continued success into the future." Ernst & Young said in April it would cut 5% of its U.S. jobs, and Deloitte also plans cuts.

UnitedHealth Group plans to buy home-health provider Amedisys in a cash deal worth $3.3 billion. Amedisys said Monday it had agreed to be taken over by UnitedHealth's Optum health-services arm, scrapping a previous plan to combine with Option Health Care. UnitedHealth, the nation's biggest health insurer, will pay $101 a share, a dollar more than its previous offer, and beating the $97.38 per share value of Option Care's May all-stock deal. The acquisition is the latest sign of rising interest in the home health sector since the coronavirus pandemic made more patients eager to access health care from the safety of their homes. Option Care said it was "disappointed" its deal was canceled.

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An Eli Lilly & Co. experimental weight-loss injection helped obese patients lose an average of 24.2% of their body weight, or about 58 pounds, after 48 weeks with the highest dose, according to a study released Monday by the New England Journal of Medicine. A quarter of patients receiving the highest dose lost at least 30% of their body weight, according to the company-funded mid-stage trial. The results were the strongest yet for a new generation of promising weight-loss drugs. "We have not seen results like this before in a trial of less than one year duration with an anti-obesity medication," said Yale Obesity Research Center director Ania Jastreboff, lead author of the study.

U.S. stock futures rose slightly early Tuesday ahead of fresh data on home sales, durable goods, and consumer confidence. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were up 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively, at 6:30 a.m. ET. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were flat. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.5% and 1.2%, respectively, on Monday. The Dow inched down just 13 points. Wall Street is on track to end June and the second quarter with gains. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are up more than 3% this month, while the Dow has gained 2.5%. The Nasdaq is up more than 9% this quarter. The S&P 500 and the Dow are up 5% and 1%, respectively.

John B. Goodenough, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on developing the lithium-ion battery that revolutionized the powering of electronic devices and electric vehicles, has died at age 100, the University of Texas at Austin announced Monday. Goodenough died Sunday at an assisted living facility in Austin. Goodenough was relatively unknown, except among fellow scientists and business leaders who benefited from his discoveries, until he won the Nobel. His key findings came in 1980 at a University of Oxford laboratory. Many other researchers helped in the development of the batteries, but Goodenough's work is considered a key contribution.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.