Perhaps the most baffling aspect of the European Commission’s ruling against Google last year, which included a 2.42 billion euro ($3 billion) fine, is that the remedial action Google was allowed to take didn’t make the market in question, shopping searches, any fairer or any more accessible to smaller players than it was before the ruling. Now there’s a reason ...

Look at two important numbers in Walmart Inc.’s earnings report on Tuesday, and you could draw different conclusions about the retailer’s momentum. Its closely watched US comparable sales rose 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier — strong growth after a third quarter that saw the best growth on this measure in eight years. That data point ...

Private-equity firms have many ways of making money, but PAG Holdings Ltd. may have found a unique model in its loan to HNA Group Co. The cash-strapped Chinese conglomerate has pledged most of its stake in a Hong Kong-listed unit in exchange for funds. The size of the advance wasn’t disclosed, but the 1.39 billion shares in Hong Kong International ...

President Donald Trump’s latest proposal to eviscerate the State Department’s budget may already be dead on arrival in Congress. It’s nonetheless a reminder of how the administration’s failure to take diplomacy seriously is undermining its own strategic goals. Barely two months after warning in its new National Security Strategy of ‘growing political, economic and military competitions,’ the White House delivered ...

For years, economists and policymakers have hailed the propensity of Chinese to save. Among other things, they’ve pointed to low household debt as reason not to fear a financial crash in the world’s second-biggest economy. Now, though, one of China’s greatest economic strengths is becoming a crucial weakness. Over the past two weeks, as they’ve held their annual work meetings, ...

Apple proclaims each new iPhone model is the best one it has ever made. The company says every software update is better than the last. In general, Apple believes everything it does is awesome. There’s a consequence to declaring victory no matter what: it becomes impossible to define success. One example is the Apple Watch. In April 2016, one year ...

People concerned about robots taking away jobs might want to consider where it’s already happened. Machines with varying levels of intelligence have quietly taken over the most glamorous, coveted and admirable job in the world — space exploration. It’s not that people can’t still be astronauts — it’s just there aren’t nearly enough jobs for all the people with the ...

Bloomberg The banking crisis engulfing the tiny nation of Latvia has turned into a potential diplomatic incident, as Riga points the finger at Moscow. “There is a high probability that an externally organised widespread information operation is being carried out that, by its structure and execution, is identical to those observed in pre-election periods in the US, France and Germany,” ...

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc is seeking to catch up with peers and will invest more than 3 billion pounds ($4.2 billion) in technology as part of a new three-year strategic plan. It will also buy back up to 1 billion pounds of its own shares. Chief Executive Officer Antonio Horta-Osorio called the investment in technology a “massive undertaking,” at ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc’s new Chief Executive Officer John Flint says he’s exploring all options for the lender’s asset management unit, including a merger, to create a larger player that can compete better as the industry consolidates. “We continue to do a lot of work around asset management, to explore all the options, but it’s too early to give any ...