The daily business briefing: April 6, 2016

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1. Pfizer kills Allergan merger after U.S. tightens loophole
2. PayPal ends North Carolina expansion plan over anti-LGBT law
3. U.S. suing to stop Halliburton from buying Baker Hughes
4. Iceland prime minister steps down over Panama Papers scandal
5. Labor Department to unveil rule raising standard for advice to retirement savers

published 6 April 2016

1. Pfizer kills Allergan merger after U.S. tightens loophole

Pfizer on Wednesday confirmed that it had scrapped its $160 billion deal to take over smaller Dublin-based drug maker Allergan, putting an end to what would have been the biggest corporate inversion ever. The decision came a day after the Treasury Department unveiled new rules designed to curb such mergers, which corporations use to reduce their tax burdens by merging with foreign companies and shifting their home base overseas. The deal's demise marked a victory for President Obama, who on Tuesday called on Congress to close the corporate inversion loophole completely.

PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman announced Tuesday that his company is abandoning plans for a global operations center in North Carolina due to a new state law that he said "perpetuates discrimination" and "violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal's mission." State lawmakers hastily passed the law last month to block an ordinance in Charlotte — where the PayPal facility was to be — that would have let transgender people use public bathrooms corresponding to the gender with which they identify.

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The Justice Department plans to file a lawsuit to block Halliburton from buying smaller oil-services rival Baker Hughes, Reuters reported Tuesday. The merger of the No. 2 and No. 3 companies in the industry would create the world's largest oilfields services provider, surpassing current leader Schlumberger NV and stoking concerns of price increases. Baker Hughes shares fell by 5.1 percent on Tuesday, while Halliburton gained 1.2 percent. Both companies declined any immediate comment on the news.

Iceland's prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, stepped down under pressure on Tuesday after being caught up in the Panama Papers scandal. Documents that were part of a massive leak from a Panamanian law firm, Mossack Foneca, shed light on the offshore holdings and hidden wealth of numerous world leaders, business titans, criminals, and others. Gunnlaugsson was the first casualty, but the U.S. and governments around the world are looking into the 11.5 million leaked documents for signs of wrongdoing.

The Labor Department is expected to release details Wednesday on new limits on advice brokers can give on retirement savings. The "fiduciary rule" has been under development since 2010. It will require brokers selling retirement investments to put clients' interests first, rather than simply recommending "suitable" investments as now required. "This is a huge win for the middle class," said Thomas Perez, secretary of the Labor Department.

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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.