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PERSONAL JOURNAL | D1
BUSINESS & TECH. | B1
TUESDAY, MAY 17, 2016 ~ VOL. CCLXVII NO. 115
******
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Obama Lauds Courage of Police Officers Who Stood Tall
What’s
News
Business & Finance
B
erkshire disclosed that
it had invested $1 billion in Apple stock earlier
this year, boosting the tech
giant’s market value by
more than $18 billion. A1
 Many big oil firms last
year continued to reward
executives for finding and
extracting more crude. C1
 Energy shares fueled a
broad rally as oil prices hit a
2016 high. The Dow rose
175.39 points to 17710.71. C4
 Facebook is now selling
video ads on behalf of other
companies, intensifying
competition with Google. B1
 China’s central bank is
again facing the pressure of
a weaker yuan and the prospect of currency outflows. C1
 Valeant said it would expand discounts for two of its
heart drugs following heavy
scrutiny over pricing. B3
 Credit Suisse plans to issue bonds that buffer it against
risks including rogue trading
and accounting errors. C1
World-Wide
 The Supreme Court sent
back to lower courts suits by
religious employers opposed
to the health-care law’s contraception requirements. A1
 The Second Amendment
protects the right to buy
and sell firearms, as well as
keep and bear them, a federal appeals court ruled. A3
 An Amtrak engineer lost
track of where he was on
the busy Northeast Corridor
before a deadly crash, investigators have concluded. A3
 The Afghan government
sealed off the center of Kabul
as thousands protested a
power-line plan that would
bypass a central province. A20
 The U.S. and other nations pledged to consider
training and arming the Libyan government as it struggles to stop Islamic State. A20
 Brazil’s acting president
said his main priorities
would be creating jobs and
unifying the country. A6
 The president-elect of
the Philippines vowed to
crack down on a range of
antisocial behavior and restore the death penalty. A15
 India’s ruling BJP appeared poised to score important gains in state legislative elections. A15
 A study on the effects of
allowing transgender individuals to serve openly in the
military found there would
be little to no impact. A5
CONTENTS
Business News. B2-3
CFO Journal............. B5
Crossword................. B6
Election 2016......... A4
Global Finance........ C3
Health & Wellness.. D2-4
Heard on Street.... C8
In the Markets....... C4
Opinion.............. A17-19
Sports.......................... D6
U.S. News......... A2-3,5
Weather..................... B6
World News A6,15-16,20
>
s Copyright 2016 Dow Jones &
Company. All Rights Reserved
YEN 109.03
Top Court
Sidesteps
Health
Ruling
prepares Berkshire for a future
without him at the helm. In an
email Monday, Mr. Buffett
didn’t say whether Mr. Combs
or Mr. Weschler made the call.
But he said they each make investment decisions without
consulting him first.
The Apple position gives
Berkshire a second sizable stake
in a technology company. Its
first was Mr. Buffett’s $11 billion
Please see APPLE page A5
WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court, unable to resolve the dispute between religious employers and the
Obama administration over
contraception coverage in the
government’s health-care law,
sent the matter back to lower
courts to seek a compromise
between the parties.
The move Monday prolongs the four-year fight over
whether the groups must offer contraception coverage
under the Affordable Care
Act. It also highlights how
Justice Antonin Scalia’s February death has hobbled the
ability of the court’s eight remaining members to resolve
the most contentious cases.
In a brief, unsigned opinion that Chief Justice John
Roberts summarized from the
bench, the justices returned
the contraception issue to the
lower courts to review
whether recent movement in
the parties’ positions had
paved the way to possible
compromise. Days after the
justices first heard arguments
in the case in March the
court issued an extraordinary
order seeking an agreement
between the sides.
The government and its opponents “should be afforded an
opportunity to arrive at an approach going forward that acPlease see COURT page A2
 Cook visits China as Apple
looks to boost prospects.... B4
 Appeals court says gun sales
protected .................................... A3
HERO: President Barack Obama on Monday awarded the Medal of Valor to 13 officers including Donald Thompson of the Los Angeles
Police Department. Mr. Thompson, who is 6 feet 7 inches tall, was honored for pulling an unconscious man from a burning car. A2
Buffett Heirs Bet on Apple
Potential successors
made $1 billion wager,
a rare foray into tech
for Berkshire Hathaway
BY ANUPREETA DAS
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire
Hathaway Inc. disclosed Monday that it had made a $1 billion
bet on Apple Inc. stock earlier
this year, boosting the iPhone
maker’s market value by more
than $18 billion.
But to the cottage industry
that fervently follows the
world’s most famous investor, it
just didn’t seem like a move Mr.
Buffett would make.
It wasn’t, as it turns out. Instead, it was among the largest
investments yet by the two former hedge-fund managers that
Mr. Buffett brought on board as
potential successors to run his
company’s $129 billion stock
portfolio.
Mr. Buffett has long voiced
his aversion to investing in
technology companies. Four
years ago, he specifically ruled
out investing in Apple.
But Todd Combs, who joined
Berkshire in 2011, and Ted Weschler, who arrived a year later,
have shown a willingness to
wade into corners of the market
that Mr. Buffett won’t touch, including the tech sector. Mr.
Combs and Mr. Weschler declined to comment.
The investment shows the
amount of rope Mr. Buffett is
willing to give his protégés, as
the legendary stock picker, who
turns 86 years old in August,
ONLINE LOAN PIONEER
BOOMED, THEN TRIPPED
Protest Over Power Line in Kabul
LendingClub hurt by ‘control deficiencies;’ CEO got 24-hour ultimatum
BY PETER RUDEGEAIR
AND ANNAMARIA ANDRIOTIS
Steep Slide
LendingClub's daily share price
since IPO
$30
25
20
IPO price
$15
15
10
5
Monday
$3.94
0
2014 ’15
’16
Source: WSJ Market Data Group
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
On April 22, LendingClub
Corp. founder and Chief Executive Renaud Laplanche accepted a “disruptive innovation” award in New York with
other winners such as “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel
Miranda and scientist Richard
Leakey.
Mr. Laplanche, 45 years
old, who built the largest online lender in the U.S. by volume, said disruption was
about “chartering new territories and doing some crazy
things.”
Two weeks later, he was
pulled into a meeting with
two directors of the San
Francisco company. They told
Mr. Laplanche to resign
within 24 hours or else he
would be fired, based on a
unanimous vote of LendingClub’s other directors, people
familiar with the matter said.
He quit.
Mr. Laplanche’s exit has
rattled investors who believed
LendingClub was one of the
strongest companies in the
fast-growing business of putting borrowers and investors
together through technology.
In fact, LendingClub grew so
fast that its internal controls
couldn’t keep up.
On Monday, LendingClub
disclosed in a securities filing
that it received a grand-jury
subpoena from the Justice
Department on May 9, the
Please see CEO page A16
A Neglected Composer Is Unmuted by Michael Jackson
i
i
i
Fans treat di Lasso statue as shrine to gloved one; a hot-wax coat
BY ELLEN EMMERENTZE JERVELL
MUNICH—A statue of 16thcentury composer Orlando di
Lasso in this city’s center
draws fans from around the
globe. Music lovers come to
light candles and leave pictures
and other bits of memorabilia.
Di Lasso, a Flemish musician
who spent much of his time in
this city, was a giant in his day.
“He was amazingly famous,”
says Franz Körndle, a musicology professor at University of
Augsburg and a di Lasso expert. “There’s not been anything like him in music history
since.”
The fans swarming to his
bronze
likeness
propriated the pedaren’t
devotees.
estal of di Lasso’s
Many have no idea
statue as an imwho he was, and
promptu
Michael
don’t even notice
Jackson shrine to
he’s there.
mourn his sudden
They’re Michael
death. “This place is
Jackson aficionados.
so Michael-y.”
They flock to the
That Michael vibe
site because it is in
is also a discordant
front of the Hotel
reminder of fame’s
Bayerischer Hof—a
vagaries. Di Lasso,
venue where the
who died in 1594,
musician
often
was also adored and
stayed.
feted in his day. Like
“This is the place Orlando di Lasso Mr. Jackson, di Lasso
statue
where the spirit is,
traveled widely to
the magic,” says
perform. His compoNena Akhtar, head of fan group sitions were printed and disPlease see STATUE page A16
MJ’s Legacy, which in 2009 ap-
WAKIL KOHSAR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
 SandRidge filed for chapter 11, becoming the latest in
a wave of energy firms seeking bankruptcy protection. B1
EURO $1.1322
BY JESS BRAVIN
AND LOUISE RADNOFSKY
 U.S. policy makers moved
to boost oversight of the
Treasury market amid growing concern over the prospect of more volatility. C1
 LendingClub said it received a Justice Department
subpoena on the same day it
announced its CEO’s exit. A1
HHHH $3.00
WSJ.com
PETE MAROVICH/BLOOMBERG NEWS
PETER J SMITH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
P2JW138000-6-A00100-1--------XA
DISSENT: Thousands protested a proposal to reroute a planned
electrical line to skirt a mostly Hazara province, amid worries the
region would lose out on new sources of power and investment. A20
In Battleground State,
Voters Split on Trump
BY AARON ZITNER
AND DANTE CHINNI
READING, Pa.—In this city of
shuttered factories and falling
incomes, Donald Trump’s swagger and promises to get tough
with trading partners have rallied Republicans and shown
signs of drawing working-class
voters to the party.
A short distance away, in the
thriving office parks of Montgomery County, Republicans
worry that those same qualities
are repelling upper-income GOP
voters.
That’s the tricky electoral
math that Mr. Trump faces in
an expected general-election
push to win Pennsylvania and
industrial Midwest states that
haven’t backed a Republican for
president in decades.
Mr. Trump’s working-class
appeal has helped add new Republicans to the voter rolls in
the area around Reading, one of
the nation’s poorest cities. But
in adjacent and more populous
Montgomery County, Republicans fear Mr. Trump could amplify a recent tilt into the Democratic camp. Democrats there
have made bigger gains than
the GOP in voter registration.
“That’s the worry,” said Art
Bustard, a 61-year-old who
owns a promotional-products
business
in
Montgomery
County. Mr. Trump, he says, “is
very popular with small-business men, contractors, machineshop operators,” but he must
show “the professional class
Please see GOP page A4
 Election 2016............................. A4