Margrethe Vestager, the European commissioner for competition, is again picking low-hanging fruit by ordering Amazon to pay 250 million euros ($294 million) plus interest to Luxembourg, deemed to have rendered illegal state aid to the US company. But the European Commission should be aiming higher if they want to send a serious message to US tech giants about doing business ...

China’s bike rental companies Mobike and Ofo are in talks to merge, Bloomberg’s Lulu Chen reported. There’s not a sane mind in the world who doesn’t think that’s a good idea. One parallel is the merger of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache to form Didi Chuxing, which then eventually folded in Uber China. They are, of course, extremely different businesses. ...

We have become so accustomed to bad economic news from Italy that few will have noticed how the euro zone’s third largest economy seems to be back on the march. That has helped some with job creation, but it also has significance for the future of the euro area: It’s undermining an article of faith among the euroskeptics, that the ...

Reuters Shares of Sudanese companies listed in the United Arab Emirates soared on Sunday after the United States said it was lifting sanctions on Sudan, while construction firm Drake & Scull led Dubai higher. In Abu Dhabi, Sudatel Telecom rose by its 15 percent daily limit to 0.69 dirham, its highest level since April, in heavy trade. A Dubai-listed Sudanese ...

Bloomberg There may be no respite for the pound after its worst weekly performance in a year. Sterling fell almost 3 percent last week, after a chaotic Conservative party conference cast the premiership of Theresa May in doubt. With political intrigue set to continue, the Brexit talks restarting and manufacturing data due, strategists anticipate another volatile week and investors in ...

Bloomberg A record number of initial public offerings in the Nordic region is benefiting some banks more than others. Among non-Nordic banks, no one’s doing better than Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to data compiled by Bloomberg on firms advising on the region’s IPOs. Morgan Stanley tops the rankings, when all equity sales are taken into account. But when it ...

Bloomberg A Bank of England (BOE) note with a face value of 10 pounds ($13) has sold for more than 700-times that amount at auction as Britain’s obsession with collectible new note issues shows no sign of abating. The tenner, as the bills are known in the UK, has the serial number AA01 000010 and sold for 7,200 pounds — ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) Chairman Howard Davies said details of a post-Brexit transitional deal with the European Union need to be outlined in the next five months to stop more financial-services jobs from leaving London. “If there are no details by the first quarter of next year, the number of moves of people out of London ...

Bloomberg Zimbabwe’s money shortage has seen card and mobile-money payments eclipse cash sales at the nation’s retailers, throttling suppliers’ stock of hard currency needed to put goods on shelves and forcing up food prices. Cash transactions have shrunk to about 2 percent of daily takings across the 33-store Spar Zimbabwe chain, from 60 percent a year ago, Managing Director Terence ...

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. is wrapping up one of its worst years ever by passing a baton to Washington’s new favourite financial-industry villain: Equifax Inc. Executives from both companies will travel to Capitol Hill this week to testify in overlapping hearings about efforts to aid customers stung by lapses at their firms. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle ...