International News

Bloomberg Publicis Groupe SA agreed to buy digital marketing firm Epsilon from Alliance Data Systems Corp. for $4.4 billion in cash, propelling the French advertising group further beyond a weakening conventional ad business in its biggest takeover yet. Epsilon’s services span loyalty programs to email marketing and its Conversant unit collects consumer data including transactions, location and web activity. The ...

Bloomberg For all the ink spilled over climate change and the global energy transition, the world’s biggest energy companies are focusing on where it all began: American oil. Chevron Corp.’s $33 billion acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corp.will make the US company the largest producer in the dusty plains of the Permian Basin by giving it control of an oil-rich area ...

Bloomberg Investor unrest is increasing after Bayer AG sweetened Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann’s bonus even as court battles over Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller have destroyed billions in the company’s market value. Shareholder and corporate governance expert Christian Strenger, a former CEO of DWS Investment, filed a motion proposing that members of the supervisory board not be discharged of responsibility for ...

Bloomberg The year was 1989 and Mark Read, armed with degrees from top-tier academic institutions and an appetite for business, wrote an application to Martin Sorrell, the founder of a little-known advertising outfit snapping at the heels of the titans on Madison Avenue. The letter landed Read his first job at WPP Plc and in the next years, the soft-spoken ...

Bloomberg Masayoshi Son will soon have some evidence to back his faith in ride-hailing: His stake in Uber Technologies Inc may be worth at least double the $7.7 billion he paid for it little more than a year ago. SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund owns 16.3 percent of the world’s biggest ride-hailing company, according to Uber’s filing with the US ...

Bloomberg China has struck a deal with Malaysia to resume the East Coast Rail Link project at a smaller cost and scope. The project will now cost 44 billion ringgit ($10.7 billion) instead of the original 65.5 billion ringgit, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. Premier Mahathir Mohamad revived talks on the rail link after cancelling it ...

Bloomberg Former Nissan Motor Co executive Jose Munoz who served the Japanese automaker as chief performance officer is in talks with Hyundai Motor Co to take an executive role, Automotive News reported. Hyundai Motor is poised to appoint Munoz, 53, as global chief operating officer in South Korea and president of Hyundai Motor America, according to the report, which cited ...

Bloomberg QSR Brands (M) Holdings Bhd, which runs KFC and Pizza Hut outlets in Southeast Asia, aims to revive an initial public offering as soon as the fourth quarter, people with knowledge of the matter said. The company shelved its Malaysia shares sale after talks with its bankers, without giving a reason. Discussions of the IPO revival are in early ...

Bloomberg Tata Steel Ltd’s European workers said they’re unsure the company’s planned joint venture with Thyssenkrupp should go ahead as the combination may favour the German firm’s operations. Thyssenkrupp offered concessions to regulators earlier this month to win antitrust approval for a European steel joint venture, including selling plants in Belgium, Spain and the UK. The two companies are trying ...

Bloomberg China’s exports rebounded after the Lunar New Year holiday amid a pickup in trade talks optimism, while a continued slide in imports underscored the fragility of the domestic economy. Exports jumped 14.2 percent in March from a year earlier while imports fell 7.6 percent in dollar terms, the customs administration said. That left a trade surplus of $32.65 billion, ...