Rupert Murdoch, co-chairman of Wall Street Journal publisher News Corp (NWSA.O), on Friday said he had “strong word” that the Tribune Publishing Co’s (TPUB.N) newspaper group will be bought by a Wall Street firm, while the Los Angeles Times will be split off a... More »
SAO PAULO The reliance of Brazil’s Grupo BTG Pactual SA on market funding may pose an immediate challenge for new boss Persio Arida, who sought to calm clients on Friday after its shares fell for a third straight day. The São Paulo-based investment bank tapped... More »
LONDON/NEW YORK/FRANKFURT Investment bank Lazard is working with Sanofi’s management to prepare a sale or listing of its Merial animal health unit, aiming to land the leading advisory job for the deal, which could value the business at up 12 billion euros ($12... More »
MILAN The chief executive of Telecom Italia Marco Patuano has the full support of the board as well as that of the head of its main shareholder Vivendi, a Telecom Italia board member said on Wednesday. Vivendi, whose chairman and top investor is influential Fr... More »
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether Comcast Corp, the biggest U.S. cable TV provider, is hindering competition in cable advertising sales, a source told Reuters. The department’s Antitrust Division has sent documents known as civil investig... More »
Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) secured formal board approval on Sunday for its acquisition of Botox maker Allergan Plc (AGN.N) for more than $150 billion, a deal that will create the world’s biggest drug maker, according to people familiar with the matter. The deal, the l... More »
Pfizer Inc’s (PFE.N) looming deal to buy Botox maker Allergan Plc (AGN.N) for more than $150 billion will cap a record-breaking run for mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector, taking the cumulative value of deals in 2015 to more than $600 billion. H... More »
Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple Inc (AAPL.O) co-founder Steve Jobs, is the lead investor who funded the buyout of News Corp’s (NWSA.O) money losing digital education business Amplify earlier this year. A representative for Powell Jobs’ organization, the Em... More »
NEW YORK Fidelity Investments is building an automated portfolio-management service for individual investors, joining a growing group of money and brokers that have bought or designed such “robo-advisers,” a spokesman for the firm said Friday. The platform, ca... More »
LONDON A bumper North American railroad bid and three other big tie-ups announced this week have taken the number of takeover deals worth $5 billion or more to a record 128 this year, according to Thomson Reuters data. Pacific Railway’s bid for rival Norfolk S... More »
GAZA Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement to allow a long-awaited third-generation (3G) mobile network in Gaza and the West Bank, they said on Thursday. Israel said the decision was made after it concluded a security examination as well as ... More »
BEIJING/HONG KONG China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd plans to invest 300 billion yuan ($47 billion) over the next five years in a bid to become the world’s third-biggest chipmaker, the chairman of the state-backed technology conglomerate said on Monday. Chairman Zh... More »
BRUSSELS European regulators on Friday said they had approved U.S data center operator Equinix’s $3.7 billion purchase of Telecity Group on condition it sold off data centers in Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London. “With the ever growing economic importance of ‘cl... More »
Dish Network Corp (DISH.O) said the proposed merger of Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable was not in the public interest, in a reply filed with the Federal Communications Commission. “The proposed merger is harmful for consumers, competition and inno... More »
STOCKHOLMas long as they can win over some of the most demanding consumers: video gamers. Since John Elvesjo noticed a sensor tracking his eye movements in a lab experiment, the technology he developed with Henrik Eskilsson and Marten Skogo has helped disabled... More »
TOKYOThe head of smartphone screen maker Japan Display Inc said he would not turn down a partnership with embattled rival Sharp Corp amid speculation that Japan Display’s top investor, a state-backed fund, wants a tie-up between the two. People close to the ma... More »
NEW YORKThe number of videos viewed each day on Snapchat has tripled since May to 6 billion as the messaging app closes the gap with social media giant Facebook Inc, according to a report in the Financial Times that cites people close to the company. The Finan... More »
TOKYOActivist investor Daniel Loeb, famously branded a carpet-bagger by actor George Clooney, has turned from bruiser to charmer in Japan, where he has added diversified retailer Seven & I Holdings to his portfolio. Sources familiar with the situation say Loeb... More »
NEW YORKVerizon Communications Inc is exploring a sale of its enterprise assets which could be worth as much as $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the largest U.S. wireless carrier seeks to focus on its core business. The sale would ... More »
LONDON Three of Europe’s top drugmakers – GlaxoSmithKline, Roche and Sanofi – face health checks this week at high-profile presentations designed to show they can overcome looming market threats. The unusual confluence of investor days comes at a testing time ... More »
Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) said its acquisition of Time Warner Cable Inc (TWC.N), which is awaiting clearance from U.S. regulators, is now expected to close in the first quarter of 2016, and not by the end of 2015 as planned. The $56 billion deal, ann... More »
Media mogul Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp said it has extend its partnership with Alphabet Inc’s Google through March 2020. Under the agreement, which has been in place for 14 years, Google will continue to provide IAC and its partners with sponsored list... More »
TOKYO Toshiba Corp is set to sell its image sensor business to Sony Corp for around 20 billion yen ($164.68 million) as part of a restructuring plan laid out earlier this year, sources with knowledge of the deal said on Saturday. Toshiba, whose businesses rang... More »
PARIS Vivendi raised its stakes in French video games makers Ubisoft and Gameloft and indicated that it may buy additional shares later and seek board seats. Vivendi sold off its video games business Activision Blizzard in 2013 in the opening salvo of an asset... More »
MILAN Telecom Italia said on Friday it would resume talks with the main shareholders of fiber optic company Metroweb over plans to build a broadband network in Italy. At stake in the negotiations is who will call the shots to implement the government’s 12-bill... More »
ZURICH/LONDON When Tidjane Thiam unveils his plans for Credit Suisse on Wednesday the Swiss bank’s new chief executive will likely rest his case on three Cs: capital, cuts and charm. Thiam will show his hand after taking the reins at Zurich-based Credit Suisse... More »
NEW YORK AT&T Inc said it does not oppose the proposed merger of Charter Communications Inc and Time Warner Cable Inc, but in a letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission it asked for a careful review on the impact of cable deals on emerging online v... More »
BRUSSELS Anheuser-Busch InBev’s (ABI.BR) CEO says a study of SABMiller’s (SAB.L) African beer markets and talks with top shareholders led to an “alignment of stars” that drew it to its nearest rival. But observers say the real catalysts for the $100 billion ta... More »
BEIJING China’s quality watchdog said on Monday it was “highly concerned” about the mechanism in Volkswagen AG’s (VOWG_p.DE) diesel cars designed to trick emissions tests and would take appropriate follow-up measures. The General Administration of Quality Supe... More »
EMC Corp, the data storage company that is preparing to unveil an agreement to be acquired by personal computer maker Dell Inc [DI.UL] as early as Monday, is also planning to seek out other suitors, according to people familiar with the matter. EMC has asked f... More »
Southwest Airlines Co said hundreds of its flights were delayed because of problems on its website, phone lines and airports on Sunday. In a statement on its website, Southwest said intermittent technical issues “are impacting website performance in creating n... More »
MEXICO CITY Mexican telecoms regulator IFT said on Sunday that it will force Telmex to offer competitors better terms as it seeks to open up its local network, part of an effort to increase competition in a sector dominated by billionaire Carlos Slim. The move... More »
Dell Inc is planning to use equity in cloud software company VMware Inc (VMW.N) to help pay for its acquisition of EMC Corp (EMC.N) in a deal valuing the data storage company at more than $55 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. While the bul... More »
ZURICH Swiss bank Credit Suisse plans to tap investors for a “substantial” capital raising to fund a restructuring of the bank under new Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam, the Financial Times said on Thursday. Since taking charge of Credit Suisse in July, Thiam ha... More »
Sony Corp (6758.T) is proceeding with a plan to sell its half of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the world’s largest music publisher, the Wall Street Journal reported. Sony, which owns the unit with Michael Jackson’s estate, recently triggered a clause in its contr... More »
Gannett Co Inc, publisher of USA Today, said on Wednesday it will buy Journal Media Group for $280 million. The price of $12 a share represents an almost 45 percent premium to Journal Media’s closing share price of $8.29 Tysons Corner, Virginia-based Gannett s... More »
BERLIN Volkswagen’s (VOWG_p.DE) supervisory board will hold an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday at which finance chief Hans Dieter Poetsch is expected to be appointed as new head of the 20-member controlling panel, two sources said on Sunday. Europe’s bigges... More »
ABU DHABI The opening of Abu Dhabi’s branch of the iconic Louvre museum has been postponed until next year because building work still needs doing, a senior official said on Saturday, the latest delay to the high-profile project. The museum was originally sche... More »
TORONTO Royal Bank of Canada led a rise in the value of Canadian equity issues for the first nine months of 2015, overcoming a slowdown in the third quarter due to increased choppiness in equity markets. Equity financings rose to C$36 billion ($27.23 billion) ... More »
Dish Network Corp’s affiliates on Thursday surrendered 197 spectrum licenses to the U.S. government after they were held ineligible for $3.3 billion in small-business discounts earlier this year, according to a senior U.S Federal Communications Commission offi... More »
FRANKFURT German publisher Axel Springer is to buy a further 88 percent of news website Business Insider for $343 million, increasing its stake to 97 percent and accelerating its push into digital, English-language content. Springer said it already owns about ... More »
Switzerland’s Roche has a potential new multi-billion-dollar drug to help it diversify beyond cancer treatments following the success of ocrelizumab against a hard-to-treat type of multiple sclerosis. The injectable antibody medicine is the first product to sh... More »
LONDON Talks between Vodafone and Liberty Global about exchanging assets to better compete in Europe’s converging mobile, broadband and TV markets collapsed on Monday because they could not agree on the value of their businesses. Vodafone, the world’s second-b... More »
OSAKA U.S. cable company Comcast Corp said on Monday it has agreed to buy a 51 percent stake in Osaka-based theme park operator USJ Co for $1.5 billion. Comcast said in a statement Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Seoul-based private equity firm MBK Partners and other... More »
OSAKA U.S. cable company Comcast Corp said on Monday it has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Osaka-based Universal Studios Japan for $1.5 billion, part of an acceleration of its global theme park strategy. Comcast, which owns Universal Studios through its... More »
SHANGHAI/BEIJING China’s most popular ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi said on Monday it has invested in Indian peer Ola, forging a new alliance within a network of companies challenging U.S. rival Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL]. Didi joins existing investors inc... More »
TOKYO Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co is considering buying a majority stake in Sharp Corp’s loss-making LCD business for up to 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion), Japan’s Mainichi newspaper said on Monday, without citing any sources. The newspaper said Hon... More »
LONDON Britain is considering selling the Channel 4 public broadcaster as part of its drive to pay down debt, a government official has accidentally revealed. An official was photographed on Thursday outside No. 10 Downing St, the residence of Prime Minister D... More »
Time Warner Cable Inc’s shareholders approved the company’s $56 billion takeover by Charter Communications Inc, according to preliminary votes at a special shareholder meeting. Later on Monday, Charter also said more than 99 percent of the votes cast at its sp... More »
BEIJING Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has called for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to press ahead with mergers and acquisitions to improve their competitiveness and for the disposal of “zombie” enterprises, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday. St... More »
TOKYO Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (2317.TW) offered to buy Sharp Corp’s (6753.T) struggling liquid panel display business and plans to seek funding from Apple Inc (AAPL.O), the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday. The report did not specify how... More »
There has been strong interest in a package of six U.S. gold assets that Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.TO) wants to sell, a senior Barrick executive said on Sunday, adding that he expects a deal to close before year end. The interest has been largely from North Ameri... More »
PARIS Altice NV (ATCA.AS), one of the most acquisitive European telecoms groups, made a major move into the U.S. market on Thursday with a deal to buy fourth-largest operator Cablevision Systems Corp (CVC.N) for $17.7 billion including debt. Altice founder Pat... More »
FRANKFURT German publisher Axel Springer (SPRGn.DE) may want to increase its current 7 percent stake in U.S. news website Business Insider, German Manager Magazin reported on Thursday. Citing unnamed financial sources, the magazine said the publisher of Europe... More »
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. Boeing Co (BA.N) on Wednesday said it had rejected an unsolicited bid from Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings Inc (AJRD.N) for United Launch Alliance, a 50-50 rocket launch venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N). “The unsolicited prop... More »
News Corp said it would buy Unruly Holdings Ltd, a UK-based video advertisement technology company, giving it the technology that analyzes historical sharing behavior to predict the potential for video ads to go viral. Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corp will ... More »
Cable network operator AMC Networks Inc was in preliminary talks to buy billionaire John Malone’s premium TV cable network Starz, Bloomberg reported. Starz’s shares rose 8 percent to $41.89 in extended trading. The company had a market value of about $4 billio... More »
BEIJING China issued some details on Sunday on plans to reform state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including the introduction of “mixed ownership” by bringing in private investment, and said it expected decisive results by 2020. Reform of mammoth state-owned firms... More »
WASHINGTON A senior Pentagon official on Friday expressed concerns about Aerojet Rocketdyne Holding Inc’s reported $2 billion bid for United Launch Alliance (ULA), a 50-50 rocket launch venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, and said the deal would req... More »
BRUSSELS Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (0001.HK) on Friday sought EU approval for its 10.25-billion-pound ($15.82 billion) bid for Telefonica’s (TEF.MC) British mobile unit O2, the same day regulators unveiled a tougher approach towards mergers in the sector. The Euro... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Friday started a non-binding 180-day countdown to review the proposed $56 billion merger of cable rivals Charter Communications Inc (CHTR.O) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC.N) The FCC said it will collect th... More »
LONDON Britain’s Tesco (TSCO.L) has agreed to sell its South Korean unit to a group led by private equity firm MBK Partners for $6.1 billion, it said on Monday, in its first major disposal since it hit financial difficulties. Seeking to raise funds to revitali... More »
ATHENS Turned down for a 10,000 euro ($11,100) loan, George Sarris is one of hundreds of thousands of small business owners shunned by Greek banks. Pointing to the parliament building overlooking his small cafe in Athens’ Syntagma Square, the 35-year-old blame... More »
MOSCOW/FRANKFURT German publisher Axel Springer is withdrawing from its Russian business, Russian news agency RBC reported at the weekend, citing two media sources and a government source. A deal to sell an 80 percent stake to Russian publisher Alexander Fedot... More »
PARIS French media group Vivendi (VIV.PA) reported higher second-quarter profit on Wednesday, helped by strong growth in its Universal Music division, and said recent asset sales could enable it to consider more acquisitions in the future. The company, with a ... More »
WASHINGTON Japan’s Nikkei media group won U.S. antitrust approval for its $1.3 billion purchase of the Financial Times from Britain’s Pearson PLC, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday. The transaction was on the list of deals that the FTC and Justice... More »
SAN FRANCISCO The waves of cash surfed relentlessly by some of Silicon Valley’s largest venture-backed businesses are showing signs of receding amid concern the companies may already worth more than they’re likely to be valued once they finally go public. Inve... More »
TOKYO Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp (7269.T) said on Sunday it would buy back the 19.9 percent stake it sold to Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) after an international arbitration court ordered the German automaker to sell its holding. Their planned partnership soured wi... More »
TORONTO The owner of adultery website Ashley Madison had already been struggling to sell itself or raise funds for at least three years before the publication of details about its members, according to internal documents and emails also released by hackers as ... More »
FRANKFURT European broadcaster RTL will focus on buying online businesses and content producers as it seeks to build itself into a video powerhouse that goes beyond traditional broadcast, its finance chief told Reuters on Thursday. RTL has TV and radio channel... More »
ZURICH Syngenta AG, the Swiss agricultural chemicals maker, was seen opening up more than 7 percent after a source said Monsanto Co. had sweetened its takeover offer, according to premarket indicators in Zurich. U.S.-based Monsanto increased its offer to buy S... More »
LONDON British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca named Sean Bohen as its chief medical officer, in an appointment that it said could help accelerate the development of new oncology and immunology medicines. AstraZeneca, Britain’s second biggest drugmaker behi... More »
The New York Daily News is no longer for sale, according to a memo sent to employees by the newspaper’s owner, Mort Zuckerman, on Thursday. The memo from the media and property mogul said that, after meeting with several potential suitors, he had “decided to w... More »
Comcast Corp’s NBCUniversal said on Tuesday it had invested $200 million in online publisher BuzzFeed, the latest move by the media conglomerate to tap into a younger audience. NBCUniversal invested $200 million last week in Vox Media, owner of tech-focused we... More »
JOHANNESBURG South African mobile phone operator Vodacom is in talks with pay-TV giant Naspers to deliver movies and television programs to mobile devices, it said on Monday, part of a search for new sources of income from fast-growing data consumers. “We are ... More »
MUMBAI The Indian government has filed a class action suit for 6.4 billion rupees ($99 million) against Nestle’s Indian unit on behalf of the country’s consumers, citing unfair trade practices and the sale of defective goods. Nestle is the first foreign firm t... More »
Norton antivirus software maker Symantec Corp has agreed to sell its data storage unit, Veritas, for $8 billion to a group led by Carlyle Group LP as it seeks cash to turn around its core security software business. The deal, the biggest U.S. leveraged buyout ... More »
NEW YORK Growing pension obligations at Precision Castparts Corp (PCP.N), which Berkshire Hathaway has agreed to buy for $32 billion, highlight an issue that large U.S. corporations still face, almost a decade into a low-interest rate environment. Berkshire’s ... More »
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) said on Friday its second-quarter profit fell 37 percent, reflecting a significant decline in investment gains and an underwriting loss from insurance operations, which include Geico. Net income for the... More »
FRANKFURT/HELSINKI German carmakers BMW (BMWG.DE), Audi (VOWG_p.DE) and Mercedes (DAIGn.DE), will pay around 2.5 billion euros ($2.75 billion) to buy Nokia’s maps business, a transformational deal that will help them to develop self-driving cars. Daimler BMW a... More »
HONG KONG HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) beat expectations with a 10 percent rise in first-half profit on Monday, driven by a strong performance in Hong Kong, and said it had agreed the sale of its unprofitable Brazilian unit. It said it had agreed to sell Banco Brade... More »
SAO PAULO HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA.L) agreed to sell its Brazilian unit to Banco Bradesco SA (BBDC4.SA) for $5.2 billion, retreating from the second-largest emerging market economy after years of disappointing performance. Europe’s No. 1 bank said in a statemen... More »
LONDON Best-selling boy band One Direction released a surprise first single as a foursome on Friday, two days after former member Zayn Malik announced a new record deal as solo artist. “Drag Me Down” follows November’s “Night Changes” and is the first single t... More »
LOS ANGELES Comcast Corp’s (CMCSA.O) NBCUniversal film and television unit is close to making an investment in online publisher BuzzFeed and is in talks to raise its stake in Vox Media, a person with knowledge of both sets of discussions said on Thursday. The ... More »
PARIS European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Wednesday that talks on a third bailout plan for Greece were taking place in “good conditions” and that the risk of an exit of Greece from the euro zone was gone. “Grexit is beh... More »
BANGKOK/HONG KONG U.S. fund giant BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) has won a special new licence that will allow it to raise funds in China directly for the first time, a senior executive told Reuters, paving the way for the world’s largest money manager to expand in the... More »
NEW YORK Fund companies and brokerage firms should be able to weather a proposal by Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that would increase capital gains taxes for some investors, but some fund holders could see higher costs, managers and an... More »
LONDON British publisher Pearson (PSON.L) is exploring the sale of its Financial Times newspaper after receiving interest from potential buyers, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Pearson was sounding out possible bidders for... More »
BERLIN German lawmakers gave their go-ahead on Friday for the euro zone to negotiate a third bailout for Greece, but a warning from Chancellor Angela Merkel that the alternative was chaos failed to prevent a hefty rebellion in her own party. The Bundestag, the... More »
BERLIN German lawmakers gave their go ahead on Friday for the euro zone to negotiate a third bailout for Greece, heeding a warning from Chancellor Angela Merkel that the alternative to a deal with Athens was chaos. The Bundestag lower house of parliament, whos... More »
ATHENS With banks shut and the economy seizing up, some Greek newspapers like the Empros daily on the island of Lesvos are running out of paper and could be forced to stop sales altogether until the banks open again. The island’s biggest selling newssheet, Emp... More »
MUNICH/FRANKFURT German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 and German publishing house Axel Springer have reignited talks for a merger, seeking to consolidate their push into digital media, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. Axel Springer, the publis... More »
LONDON Harry Potter, the world’s most famous boy wizard, is set to make his debut on the London stage next year in a new play called the Cursed Child which has been created in collaboration with author J.K. Rowling. Rowling said on her Twitter feed that the ne... More »
FRANKFURT German media group ProSiebenSat.1 has agreed to buy 80 percent of German energy price comparison site Verivox from Oakley Capital for 170 million euros ($190 million). The price tag for Verivox, ProSieben’s largest digital acquisition so far, could r... More »
