US Business

Blame lean manufacturing. A decadeslong effort to eke out more profit by keeping inventory low left many manufacturers unprepared when Covid-19 struck. And production is unlikely to ramp up significantly any time soon.

David Pecker is stepping down as chief executive of American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer, ending an era for the supermarket tabloid which played a key role in a campaign-finance scandal that sent Donald Trump’s lawyer to jail and implicated the president himself.

Palantir Technologies Inc., one of the oldest Silicon Valley unicorns, told investors it burned through $165 million last year; it plans to list shares as soon as September.

Some companies are beginning to restore cuts they made to managers’ salaries and bonuses, a sign that some industries—and their white-collar workers—are benefiting from glimmers of a recovery while millions of others continue to endure job and income losses.

The Federal Trade Commission this week questioned Facebookfounder Mark Zuckerberg in its probe into whether the social-media giant has violated U.S. antitrust laws

Uber and Lyft will be able to continue conducting business as usual in California for now, after a state appeals court paused a lower-court ruling that required the ride-hailing companies to reclassify their drivers as employees.

Bayer said it will pay $1.6 billion to settle claims that its birth-control device Essure causes serious health complications, the latest in a string of settlements by the German company.

Johnson & Johnson plans to start a late-stage trial for the company’s Covid-19 vaccine in late September, and aims to enroll 60,000 subjects.

Trump adviser Peter Navarro, seeking to jump-start U.S. drug manufacturing, spearheaded the idea and then used his sway within the administration to help Kodak navigate the bureaucracy to be first in line for the potential contract, which has since fallen apart.

Airbnb confidentially filed paperwork for an initial public offering, marking a surprising turnaround for a company whose business was initially ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic.