Earnings season: Nike, Orpea, Kingfisher, Neogen, KB Home, Alten, Aurora Cannabis and Crit are among companies posting their results today.

Confusing. China is reluctant to validate the TikTok US deal involving Oracle and Walmart, but the need for a green light from Beijing is not very clear at this stage. At the same time, ByteDance and Oracle find it difficult to agree on final details. In addition, it seems that Donald Trump could go back on his word…

Tesla down. Tesla loses more than 3.4 percent in pre-market trading after statements by its CEO, Elon Musk, on the difficulties of accelerating production and specifying that the manufacturer's strategy in terms of battery production will not run at full speed before 2022.

Trial in January. LVMH takes note of the decision of the Delaware Court of Justice, which ruled in favor of a trial scheduled to begin in January 2021 in the Tiffany case, and intends to prove that "Tiffany's mismanagement during the COVID-19 crisis constitutes a Material Adverse Effect". Tiffany hoped that the court would rule before the end of November, so that if necessary, it could force LVMH to complete its acquisition for €16.2 billion.

Everything is going according to plan. The acquisition of Principia Biopharma by Sanofi is now free of antitrust restrictions. The French laboratory is offering USD 100 per share for the American company. The completion of the offer remains subject to various conditions, including the contribution of at least a majority of the ordinary shares and various other customary conditions. The closing date is September 25.

Big Deal. Microsoft goes on the offensive in video games by devoting $7.5 billion to the acquisition of the ZeniMax Media group, which owns the prestigious Bethesda, Arkane and id Software studios. The Redmond-based group sees the number of its internal studios increase from 15 to 23, and "Microsoft attaches great importance to exclusive content," Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter points out, adding that this will enable it to catch up with Sony in terms of the number of leading titles.

3 billion for Aviva France? Aviva is looking for a buyer for its French activities, which could be valued at €3 billion, according to Bloomberg. AXA and Allianz are cited as potentially interested, as is Athora (Apollo). Information on the sale of the subsidiary has been circulating for some time now.

A guest at Comcast. The activist fund Trian enters Comcast's capital, for about 870 M$, giving it 0.4% of the cable operator's round table. The investor has contacted the company's management, whose share price he considers to be undervalued.

In other news. Nikola down 19% on Wall Street after the resignation of his CEO. Volkswagen is negotiating the sale of the French carmaker Bugatti to Croatia's Rimac, Reuters reported, corroborating a rumor that was already circulating last week. Vattenfall has chosen Alfen to deliver 4,000 charging stations to two provinces in the Netherlands.