There's no need for a spoiler alert on the direction big-ticket entertainment is taking but Sony's nearly $1 billion goodwill write-down on its movie business yesterday in advance of it Q3 earnings report later this week is an indication of how predictable the plots are becoming.

As worldwide furor over the administration's temporary ban on admitting refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries grew over the weekend, President Donald Trump blamed the media for misrepresenting the action and insisted it was "not a ban on Muslims." Meanwhile, executives at a number of prominent companies - led by the tech industry - denounced the action even as Bloomberg reports the situation may get ever tougher for companies who rely on foreign workers.

LinkedIn lost money in its first quarter as a member of the Microsoft family but overall Q2 2017 looked good with its Azure cloud computing business performing notably well, increasing 93% from a year ago. "Commercial cloud annualized revenue run rate exceeds $14.0 billion," crows the subhed on its release for its earnings for the three months ending Dec. 31.

After an off-and-on-again pursuit, Johnson & Johnson this morning landed Swiss biotech company Actelion in a $30 billion all-cash deal unanimously approved by both boards. The two companies will host a Webcast/conference call to discuss the acquisition at 8 a.m. ET today here.

President Donald Trump pressed his bring-jobs-home agenda yesterday in an hour-long breakfast summit at the White House with the CEOs of the Big Three and other auto industry executives while he also "[looked] to mend fences," as the Wall Street Journal headline puts it.

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the proposed $37 billion merger between Aetna and Humana would be anticompetitive, particularly when it comes to seniors in the Medicare Advantage marketplace. The ruling casts doubt on the likelihood that a similar pending alliance between Anthem and Cigna, already under fire on multiple fronts, will get a green light from the courts and regulators.

In a press conference this morning, Samsung blamed two unnamed suppliers for the batteries that overheated and exploded in its subsequently recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphone last year while admitting that it should have done more testing before the phones went on the market. Samsung's initial reaction to the problem last fall was heavily criticized.

Consumers have fallen in love with Kirkland-branded golf balls but Costco can't get enough of them made to keep them on the shelves.

Beating analysts' already high expectations, Netflix yesterday announced it had added 7.05 million subscribers in its final quarter for 2016, with more than 5 million of them from overseas. As it celebrates its tenth anniversary as a streaming service - it still ships DVDs by mail to 4.1 million diehards, by the way - it generated $8.3 billion in global streaming revenue and finished the year with 93.8 million subscribers in 190 countries.

Mattel has named Google's Americas president Margaret "Margo" Georgiadis as its new CEO. Long-time board member and former PepsiCo executive Christopher Sinclair, who has reinvigorated the toymaker as interim CEO since he replaced the ousted Bryan Stockton in 2015, will become executive chairman.