International News

  Bloomberg Nokia Oyj agreed to buy Comptel Oyj for 347 million euros ($370 million) to add technology that helps phone carriers manage their networks, part of a push into software and services as network-gear sales sputter. Comptel shareholders will get 3.04 euros a share in cash, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said in a statement Thursday. That’s 29 percent more than ...

  Bloomberg Interest from UK house buyers slipped to a five-month low in January amid waning affordability and a diminishing supply of properties for sale. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its measure of new buyer inquiries fell to 5 percent from 6 percent a month earlier. That came as instructions from sellers also declined, remaining in negative territory ...

  Bloomberg Thyssenkrupp AG, the German steelmaker in the midst of a corporate transformation, dropped the most in three months after reporting negative free cash flow widened in the first quarter. While the company posted better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter profit as steel prices recovered, negative free cash flow before mergers and acquisitions doubled to 1.74 billion euros ($1.86 billion) due to ...

  Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. is aiming to close the first round of investment in its planned $100 billion technology fund by the end of this month, giving Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son an enormous war chest to go on the hunt for deals, according to people familiar with the matter. The initial investments will likely include $45 billion from ...

  Bloomberg The board of Infosys Ltd., India’s second-largest technology services company, is facing questions over executive compensation and corporate governance in a letter sent by at least three of its founders, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and Kris Gopalakrishnan have signed the document asking why Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka’s compensation was ...

  Bloomberg PT Bumi Resources will post its first annual profit in five years as a rally in fuel prices help Asia’s biggest exporter of thermal coal push through a debt restructuring. The company, controlled by the family of Indonesian politician Aburizal Bakrie, had net income of $101.6 million last year, compared with a net loss of $2 billion in ...

  Bloomberg Syngenta AG, which sees its $43 billion takeover by China National Chemical Corp. closing by the end of June, said it’s open to pursuing assets that might become available as a result of antitrust reviews of other mega deals in the agricultural industry. There could be attractive seed acquisition opportunities stemming from the merger of Dow Chemical Co. ...

  Bloomberg A sales hangover and holiday-shortened month combined to send China’s passenger-vehicle sales to their first decline in almost a year, with sedan deliveries bearing the brunt of the slump. Deliveries fell 9.8 percent last month to 2.12 million units in January, the first decline since February of last year, according to the China Passenger Car Association. The week-long ...

  Bloomberg Television Broadcasts Ltd., Hong Kong’s dominant free-to-air TV broadcaster, said it received an unsolicited offer for 29.9 percent of the company from TLG Movie & Entertainment Group and is gathering more information about the prospective buyer. The broadcaster’s shares rose to the highest close in almost 11 months with trading volume quadruple the 3-month full-day average. A 29.9 ...

  Bloomberg Britain’s decision to leave the Europe Union is raising risks for 66,000 workers in the nuclear power industry and threatening to disrupt the flow of atomic fuel across international borders. The government in deciding to quit the EU also plans to pull out of the continent’s 60-year-old nuclear safety and research organization, according to a February 2 policy ...