International News

Bloomberg Ericsson has agreed to buy Vonage Holdings Corp in its biggest-ever deal, a takeover that also concludes a brief but successful activism campaign by Jana Partners. Ericsson’s $6.2 billion all-cash offer for Vonage dwarfs its 1.2 billion pound ($1.6 billion) acquisition for Telent Ltd telecom equipment assets in 2005, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Jana Partners, which owns ...

Bloomberg The cost of servicing UK government debt more than tripled in October from a year earlier due to surging inflation, leaving the budget deficit higher than economists forecast. Interest costs were 5.6 billion pounds ($7.6 billion) compared with 1.8 billion pounds in the same month in 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. In the first seven months ...

Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board approved a $50 billion credit line for Mexico, reducing the amount it extended in previous years as it argues that the nation’s economic prospects have improved. The two-year flexible credit line, which is designed for crisis prevention, is Mexico’s ninth such consecutive agreement, and is about 20% less than the amount approved ...

Bloomberg Finland needs more steps to boost jobs and cut spending to stop public debt growth in the medium term, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said, after concluding a health check on the Nordic country’s economy. The government’s planned employment measures are “unlikely to produce sufficient fiscal gains” to halt debt growth mid-decade given its pre-pandemic decision to expand the ...

Bloomberg Global talks on how to clean up shipping are set to begin on Monday as momentum builds to cut pollution from the sector. The International Maritime Organisation (IM)) is under pressure to do something,” said Edmund Hughes, who was previously responsible for greenhouse gas emissions at the United Nations body, which is shipping’s global regulator and the host of ...

Bloomberg Canadian retail sales rebounded in October after slipping a month earlier, a sign of robust consumer spending. Retailers sold 1.0% more goods in October, according to preliminary estimates released Friday by Statistics Canada. That more than offset a 0.6% drop in September, a month hampered by supply chain bottlenecks. The decline in September was smaller than the 1.9% contraction ...

Bloomberg BMW AG’s Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter expects full-year earnings near the upper end of the company’s guidance as higher vehicle prices offset production outages stemming from the dearth of chips. BMW’s returns from automaking will likely be at the higher end of the 9.5% to 10.5% of sales the company projected in September, the CFO said. While BMW ...

Bloomberg UK inflation climbed faster than expected to the highest in a decade, heaping pressure on the Bank of England (BOE) to raise interest rates and tightening a squeeze on living standards for households. Consumer prices rise 4.2% from a year ago in October, driven by energy prices and the impact of broad-based supply shortages across the economy. That was the ...

Bloomberg Traffic at Canada’s largest port has been cut off by what local officials are calling the storm of the century, the latest snag to hit the North American supply chain. Days of torrential rain have pelted British Columbia, triggering floods and landslides that have blocked the tracks of the nation’s two major railways and washed away parts of its ...

Bloomberg Euro area inflation will be faster than previously thought this year and next before slipping well below the European Central Bank’s goal in 2023, according to economists polled by Bloomberg. Consumer-price growth will peak at 4.2% late in the fourth quarter, above the previous prediction of 3.6%, according to the median forecast from the survey. A year later, the ...