Christmas 2019 should be consigned to the dustbin along with the crumpled wrapping paper and the wilted tree. That’s the message that has come in loud and clear from British retailers. And it caps off a miserable year. Total sales for 2019 fell by 0.1%, the worst year on record, according to the British Retail Consortium and KPMG. There’s no ...

Toyota Motor is making a $394 million investment in Joby Aviation, one of the handful of companies with the seemingly implausible goal of making electric air taxis that shuttle people over gridlocked highways and city streets. Toyota is the lead investor in Joby’s $590 million Series C funding, alongside Baillie Gifford and Global Oryx and prior backers Intel Capital, Capricorn ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc acquired Seattle-based artificial intelligence (AI) company Xnor.ai, bringing on more talent in a key area of technology. The company, founded in 2016, had raised millions of dollars to build tools that help AI algorithms run on devices rather than remote data centres. In recent years, Apple has pushed to run this type of software on its devices ...

Bloomberg Smart speakers such as those made by Amazon.com Inc are to come under new scrutiny by the UK government when it publishes the results of a consultation into the security features of connected consumer devices. UK digital secretary Nicky Morgan said the results of the public inquiry, which concluded in June, will be released within the next “month or ...

Bloomberg Boeing Co has identified a new software flaw in the grounded 737 Max that will require additional work, possibly further delaying the plane’s return to service. The company alerted the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and is notifying customers and its suppliers, it said in an emailed statement. Boeing’s best-selling jet was grounded on March 13 after two fatal ...

Bloomberg JetBlue Airways Corp has added another $5 to its fees for checking a first and second bag, setting a new benchmark that other major US airlines will probably follow. The airline has hiked the cost of checking a first bag to $35 from $30, and to $45 from $40 for the second bag. The price for checking a third ...

Bloomberg Passengers flying into three of the busiest US airports from Wuhan, China, or via connecting flights were screened for a new virus that has sickened dozens in China and already spread in Southeast Asia. US health and immigration officials started screening passengers on direct flights from Wuhan for symptoms such as coughs and fever at New York’s John F ...

Bloomberg Martin Kingston resigned as a director of South African Airways as the state-owned airline’s administrator scrambles for cash to keep it going. “There is no need for me to be on the board given the appointment of the Business Rescue Practioners,” Kingston, the executive chairman of Rothschild & Cos South African unit, said. The loss-making carrier has been under ...

Bloomberg HelloFresh’s stock jumped as much as 14% after the company reported preliminary 2019 results, beating analyst expectations. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for last year is expected to come in at 45 million euros ($50 million) to 48 million euros, the company said in a statement. That beat the 22.1 million-euro average estimate from analysts, according ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc has offered Deliveroo a loan after a UK probe into the food-delivery startup’s last funding round threatened a cash crunch, people familiar with the matter said. Without the backing from Amazon, Deliveroo ran the risk of running low on capital, the people said. While the size of the loan is unclear, the London-based company has significant funds ...