Financial Daily Dose 11.22.2021 | Top Story: Elizabeth Holmes Takes Stand in Own Defense as Theranos Fraud Trial Presses On

After 11 weeks of the prosecution laying out the government’s case, it’s now the defense’s turn in the criminal fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. They began by putting Holmes, herself, on the stand, and she’ll resume her testimony today when the trial kicks back off - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and Law360

Ford and the recently publicly traded Rivian have “dropped plans to develop an electric vehicle together,” even as Ford “remains a major investor in the start-up automaker.” The shift appears to be the result—at least publicly—of Ford building out its own EV strategy (spurred on, in part, by the massive enthusiasm for the F-150 Lightning) and the growing “demand for Rivian vehicles” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and TechCrunch

Swedish telecom company Ericsson is paying more than $6 billion to acquire Vonage, a cloud-communications provider, in an effort to “expand its wireless enterprise business and broaden its global offerings” - WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

UBS Group has named Colm Kelleher, the former Morgan Stanley #2, as its next Chair. Kelleher will succeed Axel Weber, who had helmed the Swiss bank for 10 years - WSJ and Bloomberg

Details on a component of the Build Back Better Act that could discouraged a favored corporate tactic for pacifying shareholders: stock buybacks. The BBBA contains a proposed 1% tax on those buybacks that could, despite its near de minimis size, “raise as much as $124 billion over 10 years, according to government estimates” and could alter corporate strategy in the process - NYTimes

Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman are closing in on a deal to acquire healthcare-tech company Athenahealth for a reported $17 billion, including debt. The company (and its healthcare technology co. ilk) has proved especially popular “in the pandemic as more people attend to their medical needs remotely” - WSJ

The already-struggling Boeing isn’t doing itself any favors with its shrinking customer base by further delaying 787 Dreamliner deliveries—many which are now over a year past due - Bloomberg

Forget elbowing other shoppers out of the way during a Black Friday rush for Cabbage Patch dolls or beanie babies. Parents (and even those not driven by familial obligations) desperate for the hottest new toys this holiday season are using shopping bots for the same ends - WSJ

On Netflix’s quest to produce blockbusters actually worthy of the big screen (and not sitting somewhere around the B/B- level that tends to mark much of their original content) - NYTimes

The cheese and cracker upgrade you didn’t know you needed - NYTimes

Stay safe, and get boosted,

MDR