Google is set to buy part of struggling Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp., according to people familiar with the situation, part of the search giant’s latest effort to crack the handset market. The acquisition, which could be announced as soon as Wednesday afternoon, is for HTC’s mobile-phone…

Over the course of its first two seasons, “ Outlander ” has elicited countless discussions about its use of sex as an integral part of the show’s narrative. Whether it’s the exploration of how its female protagonist, Claire, is a rare positive example of a woman on television with a healthy sexual…

The Practical Employer What It’s Like to Be Sued By Your Employee If you’ve never been sued as an employer, congratulations. You are likely just lucky, and not just good at employer-ing. September 19, 2017 by When you litigate, you’re losing. This is an odd statement for a litigator to make. But…

Getty Images Toys ‘R’ Us is drowning in debt and, like many retailers, has fallen victim to the shift to e-commerce Amazon.com Inc., of course, shares some of the blame for Toys ‘R’ Us Inc.’s bankruptcy filing. However, experts say there are a number of reasons why the toy retailer filed chapter 11,…

Getty Images Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors hosts a Jr. NBA Clinic in Delhi National Capital Region in Delhi, India on July 28, 2017. Kevin Durant has an NBA title. He’s won MVP awards in both the regular season and the NBA Finals. He currently owns the fourth-highest scoring average…

Benefits Organizations Caring More About Caregiving Benefits Cigna is among the latest to unveil its Caregiver Leave Program for employees. September 18, 2017 by Gail Hunt remembers what it was like to care for her aging mother who recently died. She knows the emotional, physical and mental stresses…

An earlier version of this story misstated which share class receives 10 votes per share, it has been updated. Bloomberg News Streaming device maker Roku Inc. has filed for its initial public offering. Streaming software and device manufacturer Roku Inc. ROKU, +0.00% has signaled its intention to go…

Hulu came to the 2017 Emmys to play ball. The streaming service — a joint venture by Walt Disney Co. DIS, +0.63% , 21st Century Fox Inc FOXA, +2.08% , Comcast Corp. CMCSA, -1.78% and Time Warner Inc. TWX, +0.85% — made its presence known, picking up 5 Emmys on Sunday night. Hulu went into Sunday…

President Donald Trump retweeted a doctored video Sunday showing him knocking down Hillary Clinton with a golf ball, prompting another round of head-shaking and outrage from critics. The GIF, which combines clips of Trump hitting a golf ball with Clinton stumbling on a plane — which happened in…

Those who write about and work in Hollywood often argue that some of the best work on screen today is being done on television. This weekend, the Television Academy will award the best of the best at the 69th Emmy Awards. (See the list of Emmy nominations here.) If there’s one criticism of TV today,…

Dov Charney, the former chief executive officer of American Apparel who was fired for inappropriate sexual conduct, now says he regrets nothing about what he did. “Sleeping with people you work with is UNAVOIDABLE!” he exclaimed to the Guardian, declining to say whether he is still seeing employees.…

Apple’s iPhone has repeatedly popularized new methods to replace the password, swapping the passcode for fingerprints, and now, facial recognition. But does the iPhone X’s Face ID really offer users more security than Touch ID as Apple claims? Apple’s AAPL, +1.01% Face ID technology works using its…

Benefits It’s Evident That Paid Family Leave Has Bipartisan Agreement With a wide gap between the have’s and have-nots, conservatives and liberals agree that expanding paid family leave to all is crucial to the workplace. Whether it becomes law is another story. September 15, 2017 by Between 2015…

Bloomberg Nordstrom is moving away from the big footprint of traditional department stores to try a small, Local shop There was a time when the department store, spanning thousands of square feet in malls all across the country, was emblematic of shopping convenience. Now department stores are…

Benefits Beat Engagement, Apathy and Benefits Plans As technology gets more sophisticated, employers can’t do enough to educate employees about their privacy and protections. September 14, 2017 by W e all walk around with unbelievably powerful computers in our pockets. An incredible 77 percent of…

Three former Google employees on Thursday filed a class-action lawsuit against the tech giant, alleging it discriminated against women in pay and promotions, building on a debate of whether gender bias is pervasive at Google. The three women claim that Google placed them in lower job levels than…

Oracle Corp. is expected to mark a major milestone in its transition from traditional software sales to the cloud when it reports earnings after the bell on Thursday. About two weeks before its 2017 OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, Oracle ORCL, +0.06% is poised to show more revenue from cloud…

Cutting the cable cord isn’t necessarily saving you much money. Research firm eMarketer on Wednesday lowered its estimates for U.S. television advertising spending due to “faster-than-expected growth in cord cutting.” This year alone, more than 22 million viewers age 18 and older are expected to…

The Practical Employer The Next Nominee for Worst Employer of 2017 Is … the Pumping Preventer If you tell a lactating employee to 'wrap those boobs up' so that she can get back to work, you might be the worst employer of 2017. September 13, 2017 by The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a…

Robots are coming for us or, rather, for our jobs. With artificial intelligence and machine learning on the rise, automation is set to eliminate 25 million jobs by 2027, impacting service and manufacturing industries the most. Researchers have posed a solution to slow down the expected takeover: tax…

The Practical Employer Social Media Disclosure Is So 2008 Do you want to be viewed as Big Brother? Or, do you want practices that engender honesty and openness? September 12, 2017 by Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana It’s been eight long years since…

Apple Inc. has signed new deals to sell movies in ultra high-definition with every major Hollywood studio except the one with which it has long been closest: Walt Disney Co. At an event Tuesday where he announced the new Apple TV 4K, the tech giant’s head of software and services, Eddy Cue, said the…

The Practical Employer A Refresher on Pre-employment Medical Exams A recent settlement is a reminder that the ADA has strict rules regulating when an employer can and cannot ask individuals for medical information before starting employment. September 12, 2017 by Do you require medical exams of…

Could an app mean the difference between life and death? Perhaps. Many people in the path of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey turned to television and internet reports, but as Irma changed direction and snaked its way up the Florida coastline this weekend, others may have downloaded storm-tracking apps…

The shiny new iPhone will definitely be exciting for Apple, but it won’t move the stock as much as emerging markets and new technologies will. For a value investor like me, it is easier to love stocks that are hated and more difficult to love stocks that are loved. Love is usually expensive, and the…

The Practical Employer Defining the Line Between Lawful (but Awful) Bullying and Unlawful Harassment The best course of action to avoid whether boorish office behavior crosses the line from lawful bullying to unlawful harassment is simple: don’t employ assholes. September 11, 2017 by Consider the…

Are you the type of investor who goes with your gut or follows the herd? Or do you deliberate, considering a company from all angles — even trying to find the flaws in your own thinking? Taking the extra time can help you improve the performance of your investments. This recent article by Charlie…

Home Industries Internet/Online Services The Wall Street Journal Get email alerts The Wall Street Journal By Published: Sept 10, 2017 6:02 p.m. ET Share CEO, former CFO were subjects of allegations Bloomberg News Michael Cagney, co-founder and chief executive of Social Finance Inc. By Peter…

At Apple Inc.’s event Tuesday, executives will boast about new iPhone wizardry to much applause, but the most important feature will likely be tucked in at the end and met with little audience response: the price. The expected 10th-anniversary iPhone roster, including a redesigned device rumored to…

Minor indulgences can cause major financial problems. Even if you are spending money on other people’s happy events . Millennials spend more than an average of $2,300 per year than older generations on five key items: groceries, gas, restaurants, coffee and cell phone bills, a recent study released…

Charles J. Harder, the lawyer who represented Hulk Hogan in his successful lawsuit against Gawker Media, has brought a new legal action directed at one of its former websites, Jezebel, on behalf of a self-described life-coach who said a 2016 article accuses his therapy group of being a cult.…

5 Minutes of Management 5MM: Lowering the Minimum Wage Workforce editors Rick Bell and Frank Kalman discuss St. Louis lowering its minimum wage by $2.30, a move very different from what's happening in other cities. September 7, 2017 by In this week’s edition of 5 Minutes of Management, Workforce…

It’s Thursday, MarketWatchers! Don’t miss today’s top personal finance coverage. Is it still acceptable in 2017 to ask: ‘What do you do for a living?’ One Russian woman the author recently met answered : ‘I make money for American democracy.’ Where selling your own home (without an agent) could get…

The Practical Employer Dads Are Parents, too — Baby Bonding and Sex Discrimination I see no reason, other than an archaic view of the role of men versus the role of women in raising children, why mom is entitled to six paid weeks but dad only two. September 6, 2017 by Should new dads receive the…

What’s going on in China — the MSCI China Index has returned 43% this year? That’s almost four times the gain of the U.S. benchmark index. And it’s been a smooth upward ride: FactSet If you hold shares of the iShares MSCI China ETF MCHI, -1.29% which tracks the index, it’s been a wonderful 2017. The…

The Practical Employer Is the Labor Department’s White-Collar Salary Test DOA? The ball is now in the hands of the appeals court. September 5, 2017 by Late last week , a federal judge in Texas struck down the Department of Labor’s attempt to raise the salary test for the Fair Labor Standards Act’s…

Veteran chief executives Jeffrey Immelt and Meg Whitman were smart to turn down the offer of becoming Uber’s next CEO. That’s because CEOs hired from outside of a company have a surprisingly limited ability to change a company’s course for the better. In a contest between a firm’s internal culture…

Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.03% , again voiced his support for “Dreamers” — the children of undocumented immigrants — on Sunday, saying 250 of them work for Apple. “They deserve our respect as equals and a solution rooted in American values,” Cook said in a tweet. 250 of my…

Netflix Inc. has been clear about the importance of content, and especially original content, and every month a new batch of TV shows and films arrives on the streaming platform. As its content ambitions mature and it invests more in feature films, costs continue to rise. Netflix NFLX, +0.02% has…