Free Republic

Shareholder value is no longer the main focus of some of America’s top business leaders. The Business Roundtable, a group of chief executive officers from major U.S. corporations, issued a statement Monday with a new definition of the “purpose of a corporation.” The re-imagined idea of a corporation drops the age-old notion that corporations function first and foremost to serve their shareholders and maximize profits. Rather, investing in employees, delivering value to customers, dealing ethically with suppliers and supporting outside communities are now at the forefront of American business goals, according to the statement....

.. much of today’s LGBT+ movement has retreated from the ideals and vision of thepioneers... Our organisations have become increasingly corporatised and exploited, with UK Pride parades often dominated by big business sponsors and floats, vote-seeking politicians and state agents such as the police, who brag about their LGBT+ inclusiveness but have not apologised/compensated us for their decades of oppression. Pride is now capitalism with a pink hue. It has become monetised: we pay to march, we are encouraged to buy rainbow-branded merchandise to express our sexual and gender identity. Much of LGBT+ is part of the neoliberal establishment. Most...

Dr Pepper Snapple Group and beloved Texas grocery chain H-E-B are among the Fortune 500 companies in Texas that ranked poorly in a new report assessing the LGBTQ inclusivity of businesses across the country. ... Dr Pepper Snapple received a rating of 45 out of 100 this year, down from its rating of 65 the year before. The company's benefits, health coverage, LGBTQ education, diversity council and outreach efforts were either non-existent or found to be lacking. H-E-B scored even lower than Dr Pepper Snapple with a 30 out of 100. The Human Rights Campaign dinged the company for its...

Patagonia's iconic "power vest" is a favorite for co-branded company swag, but the company has quietly enacted a new policy that shuts out oil, drilling, dam construction, etc. companies" as well as some "financial institutions" on the grounds that they are "environmentally damaging." Instead, the company is partnering with mission-oriented B-corps, and companies engaged in "outdoor sports that are relevant to the gear we design, regenerative organic farming, and environmental activism." Patagonia has become explicitly political in the years since the Trump election, backing an organization whose mission is to defend public lands with the fervor of the NRA. The...

Amazon, which doubled its profits and made more than $11 billion in 2018, won't pay any federal income taxes for the second year in a row, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reported on Wednesday. The company will not be required to pay the standard 21 percent income tax rate on its 2018 profits, and is claiming a tax rebate of $129 million, which ITEP describes as a "a tax rate of negative 1 percent." Amazon drew ire in 2018 for not paying federal taxes on its $5.6 billion in profits the year before, which was made possible due...

Christian-owned companies are diamonds in the ruff. It can be quite difficult to find a company or a store whose owner(s) shares the same ideals as you.As you may know, companies are made with different purposes. Some business owners simply want to make money, but for others, there's a deeper purpose for it.So if you're in the United States you probably know about In N' Out Burger and Chick-Fil-A, but there are still other Christian companies out there to support. Take a look at these 5 Christian companies with Godly values that you should know about:1. Forever 21Forever 21 is a...

Google chief Sundar Pichai has faced accusations of political bias from US politicians. Mr Pichai was being quizzed by members of the House Judiciary Committee about the way his tech firm runs it business. Google was accused of having "programmed" bias against conservative views into its algorithms. Mr Pichai denied the accusation saying he had "issues" with studies that claimed to show the firm's search results excluded right-wing views. Privacy protectionRepublican committee member Lamar Smith said conservative voices were being "muted" via Google's search results. "Such actions pose a grave threat to our democratic form of government," he said. "This...

Technology companies must take a moral stand against hate speech, said Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday during a speech at the Anti-Defamation League. “I sometimes say that I worry less about computers that think like people and more about people that think like computers, without values or compassion, without concern for consequences,” Cook said, as he accepted the Anti-Defamation League’s first-ever “Courage Against Hate” awardon Monday night, an honor that will be given each year to a business leader who champions equality. The Apple CEO had a message for anyone trying to push hate, division or violence: “You have no...

• Companies spanning tech, financial services and consumer products are standing up for legal protections for transgender people. • The companies represent over $2.4 trillion in annual revenue and have almost 4.8 million employees. • The signed statement comes after a New York Times report that the Trump administration is considering limiting the definition of gender to birth anatomy....

Dairy company Land O'Lakes will no longer make financial contributions to Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), the company said Tuesday. "The Land O’Lakes, Inc. PAC has traditionally contributed to lawmakers of both parties that represent the communities where our members and employees live and work and are also on committees that oversee policies that directly impact our farmer owners," Land O'Lakes said in a statement. "We take our civic responsibility seriously, want our contributions to be a positive force for good and also seek to ensure that recipients of our contributions uphold our company’s values. On that basis, we have determined...

General Electric took a $22.8 billion loss in the third quarter, with the conglomerate disclosing a criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice over its financial reporting. Under its new chairman and CEO, General Electric is cutting its quarterly dividend to a penny a share next year, after paying out 12 cents over four successive quarters and 24 cents in the prior year.

There seems to be a bit of a disconnect between Nike’s branding and the sporting good giant’s political leanings. While Nike has caught heat from right-leaning supporters for its decision to feature Colin Kaepernick in the company’s latest ad campaign, a new report from the Center for Responsive Politics — a non-profit, non-partisan research group focusing on money in politics — shows that Nike employees and its political action committee have donated more than three times as much money to republican candidates as democratic challengers for the 2018 election season. In all, Nike has given $424,000 to the GOP compared...

Ohio billionaire and longtime Republican donor Les Wexner says he is officially done with the party, and was prompted to leave after former President Barack Obama visited the state. Wexner, the CEO of retail conglomerate L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, announced at a leadership summit in Columbus on Thursday that he “won’t support this nonsense in the Republican Party” anymore, The Columbus Dispatch reported. The announcement, made at a panel discussion, came the same day Obama visited Columbus before heading to a rally in Cleveland to support Democrat Richard Cordray’s run for governor. “I...

Chip Bergh CEO Levi Strauss Image from YouTube Levi Strauss & Co. CEO and president Chip Bergh has jumped into the debate over the Second Amendment and American rights to self defense with both feet. He has come down on the side of those who want population disarmament.  In 2016, Levi Strauss asked gun owners not to bring guns to their stores. They claimed they were not against gun owners, they just did not like people exercising the Second Amendment in their stores. From splinternews.com: Citing a recent incident in which a customer was injured after the gun they...

It is hard to fathom that there really exists a body of public opinion that supports Nike's decision to make former NFL star Colin Kaepernick the center of its new "Believe in something" advertising campaign. This is the fellow who believes in wearing socks depicting cops as pigs and wears a pro-Fidel Castro T-shirt because he believes that under that murderous dictator, Cuba was a better country than his own, perhaps because he believes his country was founded on slavery and the "genocide of Native Americans." Washington Post sports columnist Barry Svrluga gushed over the ad, saying: "Nike did what...

Levi Strauss, the famous jeans maker and clothing manufacturer, has jumped into the gun control bed with none other than the king of anti-Second Amendment himself, Michael Bloomberg. Do corporations these days have a death wish? Seriously, are they even in business to make money any more? Or are they simply existing to serve as political arms of politicians’ political designs?

From a pure economic/financial perspective this Nike branding campaign doesn’t make sense…. unless, you realize a much bigger picture. A hidden bigger picture. On its face, it just seems absurd. Why would any major corporation intentionally stake out a branding position that is adverse to their financial interests? I’ve spoken to some very excellent business actuaries on this late today; and one specific conversation finally helped to make it all make sense. During that conversation a good ally shared: “a multinational corporation would never make a branding decision adverse to their financial interests. Unless there is a hidden risk unrelated...

The stock rose nearly 3 percent, briefly hitting a session high of $207.05 in midday trading before falling back below $207. Amazon had also been fast approaching the threshold. | @saracsalinas Apple hit a $1 trillion market cap on Thursday, making the iPhone maker the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach the record valuation. The stock rose nearly 3 percent following a strong third-quarter earnings report earlier this week, briefly hitting a session high of $207.05 in midday trading before falling back below $207. Based on a recently adjusted outstanding share count of 4,829,926,000 shares, a stock price...

With Gary Ramey’s fledgling gun-making business taking off in retail stores, he decided to start offering one of his handguns for sale on his website. That didn’t sit well with the company he used to process payments, and they informed him they were dropping his account. Another credit card processing firm told him the same thing: They wouldn’t do business with him. The reason? His business of making firearms violates their policies. In the wake of high-profile mass shootings, corporate America has been taking a stand against the firearms industry amid a lack of action by lawmakers on gun control....

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and city council members on Monday said they would consider legislation to repeal a “head tax” on the city’s large businesses, just weeks after the measure’s passage drew public criticism from Amazon, Starbucks and others. [SNIP] Amazon vice president and spokesman Drew Herdener said last month that the bill’s passage forced the company “to question our growth” in Seattle. "The city does not have a revenue problem – it has a spending efficiency problem. We are highly uncertain whether the city council’s anti-business positions or its spending inefficiency will change for the better," Herdener said at...