Business News at a Glance

U.S. Calls Broadcom’s Bid for Qualcomm a National Security Risk

The U.S. government said Broadcom’s proposed acquisition of rival chipmaker Qualcomm could pose a national security risk and called for an investigation into the hostile bid. The move complicates an already contentious deal and increases the likelihood that Broadcom, which is based in Singapore, will end its pursuit of Qualcomm. A government panel, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States noted that the potential risk was related to Broadcom’s relationships with foreign entities, according to a letter from a U.S. Treasury official. It also said the deal could weaken “Qualcomm’s technological leadership,” giving an edge to Chinese companies.

Bill to Loosen Banking Rules Advances

The Senate took a step Tuesday toward loosening rules imposed after the 2008 financial crisis as some Democrats joined with Republicans to vote to begin debate on legislation that would roll back restrictions on parts of the banking industry. In a demonstration of bipartisanship, the Senate voted 67-32 to allow the bill to proceed, setting the stage for a vote this week that rewrites parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. While the bill is intended to provide relief to thousands of small and midsize banks, the prospect of deregulating the financial industry has exposed a fissure in the Democratic Party.

Kobe Steel’s Chief to Step Down as It Discloses Wider Quality Problems

Kobe Steel said Tuesday that its top executive would resign, after a falsified data scandal that shook Japan Inc. and led other manufacturers to come clean about their broken pledges to meet top quality standards. Kobe Steel disclosed that some of its executives had known about fake quality data for years and blamed a companywide focus on profitability and weak corporate governance. It also said more customers had bought the products in question than it had originally said, suggesting that the impact of the scandal could ripple. Hiroya Kawasaki, the steel-maker’s chairman and chief executive, will step down next month.

Planned Sale of The Weinstein Co. Collapses Again

The planned sale of The Weinstein Co. collapsed yet again Tuesday, when the investor group that had agreed to purchase the embattled studio said it had called off the deal after receiving “disappointing information.” The investor group, led by Maria Contreras-Sweet, and The Weinstein Co.'s board announced last week that an agreement to buy most of the assets of the near-bankrupt studio had finally been reached. The deal called for the group to pay off The Weinstein Co.'s debt, which it believed totaled around $225 million. But the buyers discovered that the studio had additional debt.

UnitedHealthcare Says It Will Pass On Rebates From Drug Companies to Consumers

In response to growing consumer frustration over drug prices, UnitedHealthcare, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, said Tuesday that it would stop keeping millions of dollars in discounts it gets from drug companies and share them with its customers. Dan Schumacher, president of UnitedHealthcare, said the new policy will apply to more than 7 million people who are enrolled in the company’s fully insured plans, beginning next year. “The benefit could range from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars to over a thousand,” Schumacher said. Not all drugs come with rebates that are paid to the health plan.

OpenTable Says Employee Used Rival Service to Book Hundreds of Fake Restaurant Reservations

An eight-person party on New Year’s Eve. Groups of six on Saturday nights. Danny Beck, owner of Pearl’s Southern Comfort restaurant in Chicago, began noticing such no-shows at an unusual frequency in recent months. It turned out dozens of other restaurants using Reserve, an online reservation system, were having similar problems. And this week, as detailed in a story on Eater, the company said it had discovered that an employee at OpenTable, another reservation system, had used Reserve to place more than 300 reservations at 45 Chicago restaurants, intending to leave the tables empty. OpenTable confirmed that it fired the employee.

Uber’s Self-Driving Trucks Hit the Highway, but Not Local Roads

More than a year after Uber’s self-driving trucks made their first commercial delivery — 2,000 cases of Budweiser beer on a 120-mile hop in Colorado — the company says it has taken its robot big rigs to the highways of Arizona. Uber said Tuesday that its self-driving trucks had been carrying cargo on highways in Arizona for commercial freight customers over the past few months. The trucks operate with a licensed truck driver at the wheel, ready to take over in the case of an emergency. But Uber said the eventual goal was to eliminate human drivers inside the cab.

New Foils for the Right: Google and Facebook

Conservatives are zeroing in on a new enemy in the political culture wars: Big Tech. Arguing that Silicon Valley is stifling their speech and suppressing right-wing content, publishers and provocateurs on the right are eyeing a public-relations battle against online giants like Google and Facebook. In a sign of escalation, Peter Schweizer, a right-wing journalist, plans to release a new film focusing on technology companies and their role in filtering the news. Tentatively titled “The Creepy Line,” Schweizer’s documentary is expected to have its first screening in May in Cannes, France — during the Cannes Film Festival.

Most Americans See Artificial Intelligence as a Threat to Jobs (Just Not Theirs)

The majority of Americans expect artificial intelligence to lead to job losses in the coming decade, but few see it coming for their own position. And despite the expected decline in employment, the public embraces AI in attitude and in practice. About five in six Americans already use a product or service that features it, according to a survey that was conducted last fall and from which new findings were released Tuesday. "AI has moved into a big percent of Americans’ lives in one way or another already,” said Frank Newport, of Gallup, which conducted the survey with Northeastern University.

Once Wary of Facebook and Apple, a Mill Town Tells Them to Keep Expanding

A decade ago, when five shuttered sawmills and 20 percent unemployment defined Crook County, Oregon, nobody envisioned that the path to recovery would be tied to Facebook and Apple. But on the rimrock summit overlooking Prineville, the county seat, Facebook is sinking the footings for the first of two 450,000-square-foot data centers that together will cost $1 billion when completed in 2021. The immense buildings will join the four data centers that Facebook has built since 2010. Nearby, Apple built its own $988 million, 660,000-square-foot data center, which the company will soon expand to 1 million square feet.