International News

Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health-care products, has agreed to settle the bulk of consumers’ lawsuits alleging it sold defective artificial hips and misled patients about their dangers, according to a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “The parties have reached an agreement that hopefully will resolve most, if not all, of the litigation,’’ said attorney Mark Lanier, ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. investors are likely looking for the company to use its massive cash pile to make acquisitions, and names like Netflix Inc., Activision Blizzard Inc. and Sonos Inc. are among the companies that JPMorgan sees as strong strategic fits. Shares of Apple have lost more than 25 percent from an October record, dropping on concerns over the demand ...

Bloomberg When Siemens AG and Alstom SA unveiled their rail merger in 2017, the former arch-rivals hailed the deal as a historic union, forming the basis of a European champion with the heft to take on an expansionist Chinese competitor. The plan may well go down in history books, but not for the reasons the companies hoped. Rather, the European ...

Bloomberg Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd. had a record plunge in Mumbai after the company said it will file for insolvency following failed attempts to sell assets and repay about $6.3 billion of debt. Shares of RCom, as the company is called, were trading at 7.01 rupees in Mumbai, down 39 percent. The company’s dollar-denominated bonds due November 2020 ...

Bloomberg Sony Corp. reported weaker profits in the PlayStation business and cut its annual revenue forecast, triggering the steepest share decline in almost three and a half years. The stock fell 8.1 percent in Tokyo on Monday, the most since September 2015, after operating income in games fell 14 percent to 73 billion yen ($666 million) for the holiday quarter. ...

Bloomberg Acquisitive Chinese luxury apparel firm Shandong Ruyi Group is planning an initial public offering (IPO) for The Lycra Co., maker of the elastic material used in yoga pants and skinny jeans. Ruyi aims to list the business within three years, the group’s chief strategy officer, Kelvin Ho, said in an interview in Hong Kong. Lycra Co. owns some well-known ...

Bloomberg China’s consumers have cut back on purchases of everything from Apple Inc.’s iPhones to Swiss watches as the trade war with the US hits the economy. Landing just days after hundreds of local companies issued profit warnings and multinationals sounded the alarm about softening demand, the week-long Lunar New Year holiday will provide the next litmus test of the ...

Bloomberg After failing to stop Donald Trump from unleashing tariffs on national security grounds, the US business community is lining up behind efforts to limit his power to impose them. The US Chamber of Commerce, Business Roundtable, and two coalitions with dozens of trade associations are backing legislation to require congressional approval before a president imposes such national-security tariffs. Trump ...

Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co. abandoned a plan to make the X-Trail sport-utility vehicle at the UK’s biggest auto factory, saying uncertainty over Brexit isn’t helping on future investment. “We appreciate this will be disappointing for our UK team and partners,” Nissan Europe Chairman Gianluca de Ficchy said in a statement. “While we have taken this decision for business reasons, the ...

Bloomberg Concern about Brexit’s impact on the UK economy is growing, with consumer worries near crisis-era levels, investment falling and the property market suffering. Nationwide Building Society said that house-price growth ground close to a halt as values rose just 0.1 percent in January from a year earlier. That report came hours after research group GfK said consumers are the ...