VW ousts CEO, replacing Diess with Porsche boss

Volkswagen AG abruptly ousted Herbert Diess, its chief executive officer and architect of the auto industry’s biggest electrification effort, after repeated clashes with labor unions chipped away at his support with key stakeholders.

Porsche boss Oliver Blume will succeed Diess within weeks, ending a four-year tenure in which his hard-nosed leadership style caused constant friction and undermined his effectiveness. Missteps on key projects including delays at VW’s software unit also contributed to the shake-up, people familiar with the matter said.

VW’s board is betting Blume will be a more collaborative and stable leader, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. He’ll remain the head of Porsche, which VW is trying to list late this year in what could be one of Europe’s biggest-ever initial public offerings.

Diess, 63, becomes the latest in a long line of leaders undone by VW’s complex hodgepodge of power centers. Skirmishes between the manufacturer’s controlling shareholder family, trade union and the German state of Lower Saxony that holds a significant stake have undermined performance and ended careers.

Blume, 54, has been viewed as a potential successor to Diess for some time, though any changeover was seen as years away. VW’s board extended Diess’s contract around this time last year to 2025.

SpaceX launches 46 more Starlink satellites

SpaceX launched 46 more Starlink satellites into orbit from California on Friday.

The satellites were carried aboard a Falcon 9 rocket that blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 10:39 a.m.

The satellites were to be deployed later from the rocket’s second stage to join the Starlink constellation, a space-based broadband internet system with hundreds of satellites in low Earth orbit.

The Falcon 9’s reusable first stage returned from space and successfully touched down on a seagoing landing platform in the Pacific Ocean. It was the stage’s fourth flight.

The launch occurred 24 hours after an initial attempt was scrubbed seconds before liftoff when the flight computer detected a problem with the position of a valve in one of the rocket’s engines, according to the SpaceX launch webcast.

Tech tumble lops gains off winning week

Stocks slipped Friday, giving back some of their gains from earlier in the week as worries brewed about the global economy and prospects for profits at big internet companies.

On Friday the two-year Treasury yield tumbled again, to 2.98% from 3.09% late Thursday and from 3.14% a week ago, on worries about the economy. A report Friday morning indicated U.S. business activity may be shrinking for the first time in nearly two years, with service industries particularly weak.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.76% from 2.91% late Thursday.

In the stock market, the company behind the Snapchat app tumbled 39.1% after it reported a worse loss and lower revenue for the spring than Wall Street forecast.

The weakness for Snap could mean pressure on other companies that depend on internet advertising, which also happen to be among Wall Street’s most influential stocks. The parent companies of both Facebook and Google are scheduled to report their earnings next week. The pair fell 7.6% and 5.6% respectively on Friday, accounting for two of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.

The S&P 500 lost 37.32 points to close at 3,961.63. The Dow fell 137.61 to 31,899.29, and the Nasdaq fell 225.50 to 11,834.11.

Verizon dropped 6.7% after its profit fell short of expectations, though its revenue squeaked past. It also cut its forecast for earnings this year.

On the winning side was American Express, which rose 1.9% after it delivered better profit for the spring than analysts expected.

Compiled from Bloomberg and Associated Press reports.