3M has fired prominent company executive Michael Vale due to “inappropriate personal conduct and violation of company policy,” the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics announced on Monday.
Vale was promoted to group president and chief business and country officer just last month. Vale worked at 3M for more than 30 years, according to an April 25 press release announcing his promotion, which said he would report to Chairman and CEO Mike Roman.
The St. Paul, Minnesota-based company said that Vale was terminated on Friday. 3M did not specify many details surrounding the executive's termination but noted that his inappropriate conduct and violation of policy was “unrelated to the company’s operations and financial performance.”
According to 3M's Monday announcement, the company took “immediate action” after verifying the violation.
3M has initated a search to find a replacement for Vale, the company said.
When contacted by The Associated Press on Monday, 3M declined to comment further.
Vale's termination arrives just weeks after 3M announced that the company would be cutting thousands of jobs as part of restructuring actions.
When announcing first-quarter results in April, 3M said that these actions were expected to impact about 6,000 positions worldwide, in addition to the reduction of 2,500 manufacturing roles announced in January.
For the first quarter, 3M reported earnings of $1.76 per share. Sales totaled $8 billion for the period.
President Donald Trump said he has decided to lower his combined tariff rates on imports of Chinese goods to 47% after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Universal Music Group and AI platform Udio have settled a copyright lawsuit and will collaborate on a new music creation and streaming platform. The companies announced on Wednesday that they reached a compensatory legal settlement and new licensing agreements. These agreements aim to provide more revenue opportunities for Universal's artists and songwriters. The rise of AI song generation tools like Udio has disrupted the music streaming industry, leading to accusations from record labels. This deal marks the first since Universal and others sued Udio and Suno last year. Financial terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.
Nvidia on Wednesday became the first public company to reach a market capitalization of $5 trillion. The ravenous appetite for the Silicon Valley company’s chips is the main reason that the company’s stock price has increased so rapidly since early 2023.
Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global, breaks down September’s CPI print and inflation trends, explaining what it means for markets.
