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UnitedHealth Group announced a new chief executive Tuesday, a sudden and surprising change following the fatal shooting in December of its UnitedHealthcare subsidiary’s leader.

Andrew Witty stepped down from leading UnitedHealth for unspecified “personal reasons,” the company said. Stephen J. Hemsley, who served as chief executive from 2006 to 2017, will return to the role and remain board chairman. Witty will serve as a senior adviser to Hemsley, the company said in a news release. 

UnitedHealth has been the focus of sharp criticism over the health insurance industry’s practices and has seen its stock plummet in the past year. The Justice Department has investigated its business activities.

UnitedHealth’s shares fell more than 17% Tuesday. The stock, which is part of the 30-company Dow Jones Industrial Average, closed at $311.38 a share, well off its recent high of $630.73 in November.

The company also said that it has suspended its annual outlook for 2025, to include ‘more types of benefit offerings than seen in the first quarter’ and because ‘the medical costs of many Medicare Advantage beneficiaries new to UnitedHealthcare remained higher than expected.’

‘The company expects to return to growth in 2026,’ the statement added.

In December, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was fatally shot in what police described as a “premeditated, preplanned targeted attack” in midtown Manhattan as he was walking to an investors’ conference. 

Luigi Mangione, now 27, was arrested after a five-day manhunt at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

He faces federal and state charges in New York and Pennsylvania in connection with the shooting. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder and terrorism charges in New York, and not guilty to federal stalking and murder charges. If convicted of federal charges, Mangione could be sentenced to death.



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Microsoft on Tuesday said that it’s laying off 3% of employees across all levels, teams and geographies.

“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.

The company reported better-than-expected results, with $25.8 billion in quarterly net income, and an upbeat forecast in late April.

Microsoft had 228,000 employees worldwide at the end of June, meaning that the move will affect thousands of employees.

It’s likely Microsoft’s largest round of layoffs since the elimination of 10,000 roles in 2023. In January the company announced a small round of layoffs that were performance-based. These new job cuts are not related to performance, the spokesperson said.

One objective is to reduce layers of management, the spokesperson said. In January Amazon announced that it was getting rid of some employees after noticing “unnecessary layers” in its organization.

Last week cybersecurity software provider CrowdStrike announced it would lay off 5% of its workforce.

In January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told analysts that the company would make sales execution changes that led to lower growth than expected in Azure cloud revenue that wasn’t tied to artificial intelligence. Performance in AI cloud growth outdid internal projections.

“How do you really tweak the incentives, go-to-market?” Nadella said. “At a time of platform shifts, you kind of want to make sure you lean into even the new design wins, and you just don’t keep doing the stuff that you did in the previous generation.”

On Monday, Microsoft shares stopped trading at $449.26, the highest price so far this year. They closed at a record $467.56 last July.

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Financial technology company Chime on Tuesday filed paperwork to go public on the Nasdaq. The company intends to file under the ticker symbol “CHYM.”

“Chime is a technology company, not a bank,” the company said in its prospectus, noting it’s not a member of the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Still, the company cited Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank and Wells Fargo as competitors.

Most of Chime’s new members who arrange for direct deposit previously did direct deposit elsewhere, “most commonly with large incumbent banks,” the company said.

According to the filing, Chime picks up revenue from interchange fees associated with purchases that members make with Chime debit cards and credit cards. Banks collect interchange fees, which are generally a percentage of the transaction value, plus a set amount for each transaction depending on the rates determined by card networks such as Visa. The banks then pass money on to Chime.

In the March quarter, Chime generated $12.4 million in net income on $518.7 million in revenue. Revenue grew 32%. At the end of March, Chime had 8.6 million active members, up about 23% year over year. Average revenue per active member, at $251, was up from $231. It has members in all 50 states, and 55% of them female. The average member age is 36.

Around two-thirds of members look to Chime for their “primary financial relationship,” Chime said. The term refers to those who made at least 15 purchases using its card or received a qualifying direct deposit of at least $200 in the past calendar month.

Chime offers a slew of other services in addition to its cards. Eligible members with direct deposit can borrow up to $500 with a fixed interest rate of $5 for every $100 borrowed. The company doesn’t charge late fees or compound interest.

Following an extended drought, IPOs looked poised for a rebound when President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. CoreWeave’s March debut provided some momentum. But Trump’s tariff announcement in April roiled the market and led companies including Chime as well as trading platform eToro, online lender Klarna and ticket marketplace StubHub to delay their plans.

EToro is now scheduled to debut this week, and digital health company Hinge Health issued its pricing range for its IPO on Tuesday, win an expected offering coming soon. Chime’s public filing is the latest sign that emerging tech companies are preparing to test the market’s appetite for risk. Last month Figma said it had filed confidentially for an initial public offering.

Chris Britt, Chime’s co-founder and CEO, told CNBC in 2020 that it would be ready for an IPO within the next 12 months. But in late 2021 markets turned negative on technology as inflation picked up, prompting central bankers to ratchet up interest rates.

Chime was founded in 2012 and is based in San Francisco. It ranked 22nd on CNBC’s 2024 Disruptor 50 list of privately held companies.

Investors include Crosslink Capital, DST Global, General Atlantic, Iconic Strategic Partners and Menlo Ventures.

— CNBC’s Ari Levy contributed to this report.

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