CEO Weekly Outlook

The Wall Street Journal reports that more and more American companies are aiming for sale instead of IPO. “This underscores the gap between volatile financial markets and a booming merger business.” A predicted interest rate hike, high stock valuations, and terrorism threats all contribute to volatility — which doesn’t bode well for IPOs.

Business Insights

• This is what millennials prioritize in the workplace
• Are we really as busy as we claim?
• Firing employees in the digital age
• Is radical candor the secret to being a great boss?
• How one company doubled its customer base in six months
• Is creativity or execution more important?

Transaction Toolbox

• Men’s Wearhouse and the Pac-man defense (and what its ousted founder thinks about the company’s travails)
• S. companies just want to get bought
• Why spin-offs can be good strategy
• How to control negotiation from the start

Middle Market Move of the Week

General Electric’s UK home loan portfolio is being sold to an investment consortium led by Blackstone Group LP. The deal, which will reduce the size of its British home lending business to $400 million, “is part of GE’s plan to divest assets worth about $200 billion of its finance arm, GE Capital, as it moves away from finance and focuses on manufacturing industrial equipment.”