Welcome to Axis ProRata, a podcast that takes just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech business and politics.

I'm Dan Premak. On today's show, Sears Files for Bankruptcy, and Facebook is developing a new way to help you hear things, and it doesn't involve your ears.

But first, the escalating conflict with Saudi Arabia over the fate of missing Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

So here's the latest.

The Saudis' big business conference next week, nicknamed Davos in the Desert, is on life support.

First it lost CEOs from big companies like Ford and Uber, and now it's losing Wall Street as well.

J.B. Morgan's CEO, Jamie Diamond, bailed on Sunday,

followed early this morning by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Blackstone CEO Steve Schwartzman.

And just for some context to show the relationships here, J.P. Morgan has helped manage some

Saudi sovereign bond offerings and is also supposed to help manage what would be the largest IPO in

history for Saudi's

state-owned oil company. Blackstone, for its part, it recently received a $20 billion commitment

from the Saudi government for a new global infrastructure fund. Now, U.S. Treasury Secretary

Steve Mnuchin reaffirmed on Friday that he still plans to go to the conference, so long as it

isn't canceled first. But President Trump is now moving

a bit off his original posture that preserving an arms sale deal is more important than the

possible murder of a journalist. Here's what he had to say this morning. I just spoke with the

king of Saudi Arabia who denies any knowledge of what took place with regard to, as he said, his Saudi Arabian citizen.

I've asked, and he firmly denied that.

I've asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to immediately get on a plane, go to Saudi Arabia,

go to other places, if necessary, which he probably will.

Now, it's really important to remember, we still don't know for sure what happened here.

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