• Supporters say that those who came after Mr. Welch simply lacked the “perception and adaptability” with which he guided a sprawling conglomerate to extraordinary heights over a two-decade span. Capturing the mood among many modern C.E.O.s, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan said in a statement:

Personally, I always admired him as a mentor, as a friend and even as a fatherly figure. He really set the standard as a C.E.O., not just in his performance running the company and as a legendary leader, but in his deep integrity, big heart and strategic vision.

Waymo gets a little help from its friends

The autonomous vehicle business owned by Alphabet said yesterday that it had raised $2.25 billion, mostly from outside investors, to help advance its lead in the race for self-driving cars, Dai Wakabayashi of the NYT reports.

The round was led by the private equity firm Silver Lake, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, Magna International, Andreessen Horowitz and AutoNation. It was the first time outsiders were allowed to invest in Waymo. Alphabet didn’t announce the valuation for the round.

Alphabet has $120 billion in cash. Why does it need outsiders? Ruth Porat, the Alphabet C.F.O., is keen to rein in spending on the more speculative units spun out of the group’s research labs (known as Other Bets in the company hierarchy). That explains the Waymo fund-raising, and last year’s $1 billion injection into the life sciences company Verily (also involving Silver Lake). In January, the Alphabet C.E.O. Sundar Pichai told Fortune that most of the group’s businesses in its Other Bets unit could take outside investment.

The speed read

Deals

• Morgan Stanley’s $13 billion deal to buy E-Trade specifically excludes the coronavirus as a reason to walk away from the takeover. (Bloomberg Law)

• The activist shareholder Sherborne Investors called on Barclays’ board to withdraw its support for the bank’s C.E.O., Jes Staley, as a director. (NYT)

• Gilead agreed to buy Forty Seven, a maker of drugs that use the body’s immune system to fight tumors, for $4.9 billion. (Bloomberg)

Politics and policy

• Attorney General Bill Barr has reportedly taken more control of the Justice Department’s inquiries into Big Tech, sidelining the department’s antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim. (Politico)