Farhad Moshiri spune că sfârșitul deținerii lui Everton l-a lăsat cu „emoții amestecate” și că se întreabă unde ar fi fost clubul dacă Carlo Ancelotti ar fi rămas la Goodison Park.
Mandatul omului de afaceri britanic-iranian la conducerea Toffees a luat sfârșit joi, după ce și-a vândut pachetul de acțiuni din club către Friedkin Group într-o tranzacție despre care se crede că are o valoare de peste 400 de milioane de lire sterline.
Preluarea a determinat grupurile de fani Everton să privească înainte cu „speranță și optimism” după o perioadă deosebit de haotică sub Mosihiri.
Clubul a fost afectat de o relație dificilă cu fanii, tulburări manageriale, lupte pentru retrogradare, prăbușirea sălii de consiliu, deduceri de puncte din Premier League și o criză financiară care a împins Evertonul în pragul prag.
Într-o scrisoare deschisă adresată suporterilor, Moshiri a recunoscut un sentiment de „durere când reflectă asupra trecutului” după o perioadă „provocatoare” pe Merseyside, dar a spus că părăsește clubul „într-un loc material mai bun” decât cel pe care l-a moștenit.
„Înțeleg pe deplin că în fotbal, rezultatele pe teren sunt primordiale și, în aceiași ani, nu au fost suficient de bune”, a scris Moshiri.
„Am adus manageri de top precum Carlo Ancelotti la club și cine știe unde am fi fost dacă nu ar fi fost ademenit înapoi la prima lui dragoste Real Madrid”.
a spus Moshiri în scrisoare, extern că lăsarea lui Everton cu un „stadion iconic” de care „toți Evertonienii și comunitatea mai largă să se bucure de-a lungul deceniilor și deceniilor viitoare” a fost ceva de care „s-ar simți cu adevărat mândru”.
„Când am achiziționat clubul în urmă cu opt ani, știam că trebuie modernizat, atât cu un nou stadion, cât și cu terenul de antrenament, care a fost investit mult”, a adăugat el.
„Am suportat costurile uriașe ale acelor îmbunătățiri prin deținerea mea, prețurile abonamentelor rămânând aproape aceleași în perioada mea de proprietate.
„Am încercat să minimizez impactul asupra fanilor cu biletele noastre printre cele mai accesibile din Premier League”.
SAO PAULO/JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Banca digitală braziliană Nubank a anunțat că a investit 150 de milioane de dolari în Tyme Group, o bancă digitală cu 15 milioane de clienți în Africa de Sud și Filipine, finanțare care va ajuta Tyme Group să-și finanțeze impulsul în Asia de Sud-Est și să listeze până în 2028.
Într-o declarație de luni, Nubank a declarat că runda de finanțare din seria D a Tyme Group a însumat 250 de milioane de dolari, M&G Catalyst Fund subscriind pentru 50 de milioane de dolari, iar acționarii existenți oferind alte 50 de milioane de dolari.
După ce și-a încheiat ultima rundă de investiții, Tyme Group, cu sediul în Singapore, susținut de Tencent din China, a obținut și statutul de unicorn după ce și-a asigurat fondurile care îi conferă o evaluare totală de 1,5 miliarde de dolari, se arată într-un comunicat separat. Statutul Unicorn se referă la un startup evaluat la peste 1 miliard de dolari.
„Această finanțare va propulsa strategia noastră de creștere, permițându-ne să ne realizăm obiectivul declarat de a fi o bancă de top trei din Africa de Sud în următorii trei ani”, a declarat Karl Westvig, CEO TymeBank din Africa de Sud.
„În plus, credibilitatea sporită și vizibilitatea pe piață care vin odată cu afilierea cu Nubank, împreună cu rețelele mari de investitori globali stabilite, inclusiv GIC, Berkshire Hathaway, ajută la deschiderea drumului grupului către o potențială listare până în 2028”, a adăugat el.
Coen Jonker, co-fondator și CEO al Tyme Group, a declarat pentru Bloomberg în iunie că compania dorește să se coteze la New York și, cel mai probabil, să aibă o listă secundară la Bursa de Valori din Johannesburg.
Tyme Group are operațiuni în Africa de Sud prin TymeBank, care a fost lansat în 2019 și are 10 milioane de clienți. A lansat a doua sa bancă digitală, GoTyme, în Filipine, în parteneriat cu Grupul Gokongwei, în octombrie 2022.
Grupul se pregătește acum pentru extinderea în Vietnam și Indonezia.
Cel mai mare acționar al Tyme Group este African Rainbow Capital, controlat de miliardarul african Patrice Motsepe.
(Reportaj de Andre Romani în Sao Paulo și Nqobile Dludla în Johannesburg; editat de Brendan O'Boyle și Jamie Freed)
Andrew Witty, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, depune mărturie în timpul audierii Comitetului de Finanțe al Senatului intitulată „Hacking America's Health Care: Assessing the Change Healthcare Cyber Attack and What's Next”, în clădirea Dirksen, miercuri, 1 mai 2024. – Imagine: Tom Williams / Colaborator (Getty Images)
Directorul general al UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Andrew Witty, a spus că sistemul de sănătate al națiunii „nu funcționează așa cum ar trebui” și că gigantul asigurărilor poate crește transparența în ceea ce privește propriile decizii de acoperire. El a făcut aceste observații într-un articol de opinie publicat vineri în New York Times.
Articolul de opinie vine în timp ce firma se confruntă cu un control public din ce în ce mai mare în urma împușcării fatale a lui Brian Thompson, CEO-ul filialei de asigurări a UnitedHealth.
Thompson a fost împușcat mortal în New York City pe 4 decembrie, cu doar câteva ore înainte de a fi stabilit să vorbească la ziua anuală a investitorilor a companiei de asigurări. Incidentul a provocat reacții negative asupra modului în care industria evaluează afirmațiile medicale.
„Îngrijirea sănătății este atât intens personală, cât și foarte complicată, iar motivele din spatele deciziilor de acoperire nu sunt bine înțelese. Împărtășim o parte din responsabilitatea pentru asta”, a scris Witty. „Împreună cu angajatorii, guvernele și alții care plătesc pentru îngrijire, trebuie să îmbunătățim modul în care explicăm ce acoperă asigurarea și cum sunt luate deciziile.” New York Times (NYT) și-a dezactivat secțiunea de comentarii pentru poveste, după ce numeroși comentatori au criticat eseul.
Ediția de opinie marchează o schimbare de ton a lui Witty, care a apărat anterior practicile companiei de negare a revendicărilor într-un videoclip înregistrat după împușcătură.
„Ne asigurăm că îngrijirea este sigură, adecvată și este oferită atunci când oamenii au nevoie de ea și ne protejăm împotriva presiunilor care există pentru ca îngrijirea nesigură sau inutilă să fie furnizată într-un mod care face ca întregul sistem să fie prea complex și, în cele din urmă, nesustenabil”, Witty le-a spus angajaților într-un videoclip difuzat jurnalistului Ken Klippenstein.
Ca răspuns la videoclip, zeci de oameni au postat pe rețelele de socializare criticând remarcile lui Witty și împărtășind experiențele lor cu compania de asigurări.
În plus, după împușcare, postările pe rețelele de socializare au susținut că rata de respingere a cererilor UnitedHealthcare este cea mai mare din industrie. Cu toate acestea, deoarece asigurătorii păstrează adesea astfel de date ascunse, adevărata amploare a acestor refuzuri rămâne neclară, în special în ceea ce privește planurile private.
Cu toate acestea, rapoarte recente arată că negările pentru unii pacienți au fost în creștere.
În octombrie, un raport al Subcomitetului Permanent pentru Investigații al Senatului SUA a arătat că asigurătorii națiunii au folosit instrumente bazate pe inteligență artificială pentru a respinge unele reclamații de la abonații planului Medicare Advantage.
Raportul a constatat că rata de refuz a UnitedHealthcare pentru îngrijirea post-acută – îngrijirea medicală necesară pentru a trece oamenii din spitale și înapoi în casele lor – pentru persoanele cu planuri Medicare Advantage a crescut la 22,7% în 2022, de la 10,9% în 2020.
We’re officially nearing the end of group play in the 2024 NBA Cup, and the matchups for the knockout round will become much clearer in the coming days.
The Golden State Warriors have already claimed their spot in the knockouts after dominating West Group C. The Houston Rockets will also be joining them after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime on Tuesday in West Group A.
And remember, point differential matters in this tournament, especially for the Los Angeles Lakers, who entered Tuesday with a plus-12 point differential but are now chasing the Phoenix Suns in West Group B after being blown out by the Suns 127-100. LeBron James and the defending in-season tournament champions face a tough road back to even making the knockout round.
After group play concludes on Dec. 3, the quarterfinals will take place on Dec. 10 and 11 as teams battle it out to claim the second in-season tournament trophy ever, not to mention $500,000 for each player.
We asked our NBA insiders to answer some of the biggest questions in this high-stakes tournament, including who the group-play MVP is and what’s been the biggest surprise so far.
Which group has proved to be the toughest so far?
Michael Wright: West Group C. There are three teams that entered the week sitting in the top seven in the Western Conference: the Warriors, Denver Nuggets and Memphis Grizzlies. Not to mention the defending West champion Dallas Mavericks certainly aren’t a slouch. The Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans have both been decimated by injuries this season, which is why they’ve struggled in the NBA Cup and the regular season. The Warriors, however, are cruising through the group after becoming the first team to clinch a spot in the NBA Cup knockout round, eliminating New Orleans in the process.
Tim MacMahon: West Group B has lived up to its expectations. Anticipated to be the toughest group, it features three teams coming off playoff appearances (defending in-season tourney champ Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder and Suns) and the San Antonio Spurs, who are making a massive leap this season after improving the supporting cast around Victor Wembanyama. All four of those teams have one loss in NBA Cup action, so this group’s bid to the knockout stage will go down to the wire.
Dave McMenamin: East Group C. It features the defending champs in the Boston Celtics, the hottest team in the league in the Cleveland Cavaliers, plus the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks — sub-.500 teams, sure, but not easy wins by any means. Plus, all four of those teams are strong enough to ignore the miserable Washington Wizards, who were eliminated Tuesday night by the Bulls.
Ohm Youngmisuk: East Group C has turned out to be much tougher than originally expected due to Cleveland’s red-hot start. With the defending champion Celtics in the same group, East C has the teams with the two best records in the league. After Tuesday’s slate of games, however, Chicago, Atlanta and Boston were all tied for third, and Friday will clear up which one of these teams makes it closer to the knockout rounds.
Chris Herring: West Group B. Yes, the Utah Jazz are flat-out bad. But the group’s other four clubs — the Thunder, Suns, Lakers and Spurs — all have winning records and would reach the postseason if the campaign ended today. And in the case of the Suns, they might be far better than their record, given that they were one of the hottest teams in the league before Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal suffered calf injuries.
Which team has made the biggest surprise run?
McMenamin: The Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee has been great in group play, going 3-0 — including a win against last season’s East finalist in the Indiana Pacers and a road win in Miami without Giannis Antetokounmpo — and has been pretty pedestrian in all its other games. The Bucks look somewhat reminiscent of last season’s NBA Cup champions, the Lakers.
Youngmisuk: While they’ve played only two NBA Cup games so far, the Detroit Pistons are a surprising 2-0 in the tournament entering Friday’s games. Yes, the Pistons needed a rare gaffe by Erik Spoelstra calling a timeout when he didn’t have one to escape with an overtime win over the Miami Heat. But the fact that the Pistons have a shot at the knockout rounds after winning just 14 games a season ago is impressive.
Herring: It feels unfair to call them the biggest surprise, only because what they’re doing appears so legit. But it’s hard to go against the Rockets. From a statistical standpoint, they’re right on the heels of the Thunder’s historic league-leading defense, which is wildly impressive. They’ve carved out a legit identity through that end of the floor, and they might have additional upside, given how dominant they’ve been when they swap in defensive stud Amen Thompson for scorer Jalen Green.
MacMahon: Ime Udoka might be offended that the Rockets are my choice here. After all, he was adamant on media day that Houston would make the playoffs, so Udoka won’t consider the Rockets’ early NBA Cup success a surprise. But did you think the Rockets would be the most dominant team in group play? Houston, which clinched West Group A with Tuesday’s road overtime win over the Timberwolves, is 3-0 with the best point differential (plus-49) in the league.
Wright: The Lakers won the inaugural NBA Cup last season, so their production this season has been no surprise. The Orlando Magic, New York Knicks and the Rockets have been impressive, too. But Golden State has to be the biggest surprise given the somewhat low expectations for the Warriors entering this season. Plenty of people wondered whether this squad’s time in the sun was finally over. Clearly, it’s not. What’s been fun to watch is this team’s by-committee approach. One night it’s Stephen Curry leading the charge, the next it’s Buddy Hield or Andrew Wiggins. Golden State’s defense, ranked fourth in the league, is a big reason it was the first team to punch its ticket to the knockout rounds.
What is your championship matchup — and who will win?
Youngmisuk: How about a rematch of the 2022 NBA Finals? The Celtics and Warriors meeting in Vegas would not only be fun but would have a tinge of drama. Besides getting a superstar matchup of Steph versus Tatum, there’s also Tatum against Steve Kerr. The first meeting between the two on Nov. 6 finished with the Warriors winning in Boston to the sound of the local crowd’s boos. While Golden State has struggled a little of late, Curry is not going to come away from Vegas empty-handed if he has gotten this far.
Herring: I could see the Suns and Bucks making a run to give us a (very different-looking) rematch from the 2021 NBA Finals. Both teams have experienced rough patches early on this season but seem eager to show that they’re worthy of being seen as contenders. Who wouldn’t want to see KD and Devin Booker square off with Giannis and Damian Lillard with hardware on the line?
Wright: There won’t be any shortage of star power if the Lakers face off against the Celtics with LeBron James and Anthony Davis taking on defending champions Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. The only concern from this vantage point is the question of whether the teams will expend so much energy to win the NBA Cup that it affects their performance later in the season in the quest to capture an arguably more important Larry O’Brien Trophy.
MacMahon: How about a rematch of last season’s NBA Finals with the Celtics beating the Mavericks again? The Celtics reminded us that they’re the best team in the league again after recently ending the Cavaliers’ 15-0 start. The Mavs have sputtered a bit early in the season, but Dallas is in pole position to get the West’s wild card bid. Luka Doncic hasn’t played up to his MVP-candidate standards yet this season, but the odds appear that will change soon.
McMenamin: We could get a coast-to-coast matchup with the Knicks taking on the Warriors in the NBA Cup final. The Warriors have already claimed a spot in the knockout round, and the Knicks are tied with the Magic (2-0) in East Group A with a matchup between these two teams coming next Tuesday in the last week of group play.
Which team with at least two losses has been the most disappointing?
MacMahon: The Timberwolves failed to take advantage of what seemed to be a favorable group, opening NBA Cup play with an ugly road loss to the rebuilding Portland Trail Blazers and having any realistic hope of advancing halted with an overtime loss to the Rockets at home. The league certainly wouldn’t have minded having ascending superstar Anthony Edwards to be part of the Las Vegas festivities, but the Wolves weren’t up to the task. Minnesota has been one of the biggest disappointments in the first quarter of the regular season, as well, losing seven of its past nine games to dip under .500.
Herring: It’s too soon in the NBA Cup’s life cycle to know whether we should expect any sort of year-to-year carryover from teams in terms of performance. Still, it would’ve been fair to expect more of the Pacers, who have lost their first two NBA Cup games by double digits after making it to last season’s final. Even if you throw out their electric play during last season’s tournament, they were also coming off a trip to the Eastern Conference finals.
McMenamin: The Timberwolves. The Wolves beat the Trail Blazers by 25 on Nov. 8 in a regular-season game, but when it came to playing the Blazers in their group-play opener Nov. 12, they lost by a disappointing 14 points. Not to mention their overtime loss to the Rockets on Tuesday, a blow to their West Group A standings. In both the regular season and in-season tournament, they haven’t come close to recapturing the magic from their Western Conference finals run yet this season.
Wright: The Nuggets. NBA Cup losses to the depleted Pelicans and Luka Doncic-less Mavericks only bolster coach Michael Malone’s recent harsh words for his team. Malone called out his squad Monday after it gave up 145 points in a non-Cup loss to the Knicks at Ball Arena. The surprising part of Malone’s criticism was that he called for more vocal leadership. Let’s not forget Denver captured an NBA title in 2023 and the core of the team remains. So, Malone shouldn’t feel the need to challenge vets such as three-time MVP Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray (in his eighth season).
Youngmisuk: There are several candidates for this, but Minnesota should be better. Yes, the Wolves are still getting adjusted to the Karl-Anthony Towns-Julius Randle trade, but losing to a rebuilding Portland by 14 is disappointing for a team that has playoff aspirations. For a team that was one step away from reaching the NBA Finals last postseason, the Wolves should be in a much better spot this early in the season.
Who is your group-play MVP?
Wright: The Sacramento Kings’ De’Aaron Fox was on fire in his first two games of group play, averaging 44.5 points, 7 assists and 2 steals while shooting 58.2% from the floor and 41.2% from deep. But those contests ended in losses for a Kings team still looking for its first Cup victory and sitting at the bottom of West Group A. However, Bucks lead guard Damian Lillard’s performance against the Heat on Tuesday without Giannis Antetokounmpo sealed the deal for him to take group-play MVP. He has averaged 30.5 points and 12.5 assists, shooting 52.4% from deep on high volume (10.5 attempts per game).
MacMahon: The Magic are only halfway done with group play, but Franz Wagner is putting together a pretty strong case for this mythical MVP award. Wagner averaged 31.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.5 steals during Orlando’s two NBA Cup wins. It’s part of what’s been an All-Star-caliber campaign for the 22-year-old Wagner, who is averaging career highs in scoring (23.4), rebounds (5.5), assists (5.6) and steals (1.8), keying the Magic’s success while Paolo Banchero recovers from his oblique injury.
McMenamin: Dillon Brooks. The Rockets are 3-0 with the best point differential out of any team (plus-49) and Brooks has been spectacular so far. He averaged 23.3 points in group play on 58.5% shooting (62.5% from 3) and 3.3 rebounds per game — more than 10 points above his season average — while his defensive prowess has helped Houston to the No. 2 defensive rating in the league.
Youngmisuk: Anthony Davis is off to an incredible start. In the NBA Cup, the Lakers big man is averaging 30.3 points, 13.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.3 steals. While the Lakers dropped a disappointing game to the Suns by 27, AD still had 25 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks. He will be a tough matchup for anyone if Los Angeles makes it back to Vegas.
Herring: Poor De’Aaron Fox, who’s averaging almost 45 points and seven assists, and won’t even sniff the award, given his team’s 0-2 start in group play. But how about Orlando’s Franz Wagner? With Paulo Banchero out, he has had an All-Star-caliber campaign, which includes averages of 31.5 points, 9.5 boards and 5.5 assists in 50% shooting in NBA Cup play so far.
