International News

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s short-lived attempt to open an “innovation hub” in China underscores just how difficult it will be for the social network to build a meaningful presence in the country. Shortly after a government website showed a unit of the social network could register a company in Zhejiang, meant as a hub to interact with Chinese developers, the notice ...

Bloomberg Chinese e-commerce operator Pinduoduo Inc. rose as much as 44 percent on its first day of trading in New York after selling raised $1.6 billion in the fourth-largest US initial public offering this year. The shares, which priced at the top of the marketed range in the IPO, were up 36 percent to $25.88 in New York. The shares ...

Bloomberg The US economy accelerated to a 4.1 percent pace of growth in the second quarter, the fastest since 2014, letting President Donald Trump claim a win for his policies even though expansion is projected to cool. The annualized rate of gains in gross domestic product was just shy of the 4.2 percent median forecast in a Bloomberg survey. It ...

Bloomberg A US jury awarded International Business Machines Corp. $82.5 million after finding that Groupon Inc. infringed four of its e-commerce patents. The verdict is a boon to IBM’s intellectual-property licensing business, which last year brought in $1.19 billion for the company, holder of more than 45,000 patents. Groupon fell 7.8 percent to $4.84 in New York trading. IBM sued ...

Bloomberg Steinhoff International Holdings NV said the former head of finance in Europe has left the boards of two key units as an investigation into the scandal-hit retailer’s inaccurate accounts deepens. The owner of Conforama in France and Mattress Firm in the US, which last week won support from a majority of creditors to restructure its 9.4 billion euros ($11 ...

Bloomberg Canada’s new Minister of International Trade Jim Carr has invited a dozen trade ministers to meet in October to discuss how to fix the World Trade Organization (WTO). But two countries have been left off the list: the US and China. The goal is to “identify concrete and tangible ways the operation and function of the WTO can be ...

Bloomberg Mark Zuckerberg is counting the cost of user disenchantment with Facebook Inc. His fortune tumbled by $16.8 billion in late trading, as shares of the social media giant slid 20 percent in New York on disappointing results. If that holds through, he will slide to sixth place from third on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. It would also wipe his ...

Bloomberg Are Britons living beyond their means? That’s the question being asked by the Office for National Statistics after households saw their outgoings exceed their incomes last year for the first time in three decades. Each household spent or invested about 900 pounds ($1,187) more than they received on average — 25 billion pounds in total, according to an ONS ...

Bloomberg Fosun International Ltd., the Chinese group backed by billionaire Guo Guangchang, is considering an offer for all or parts of Belgian insurer Ageas in what could be its boldest move to expand its international footprint, people familiar with the matter said. Shanghai-based Fosun is talking to advisers about alternatives including teaming up with a partner to split the Brussels-based ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s apps and websites are still blocked in China, but that’s not stopping the social media giant from trying to open a center in the country to support local startups. Facebook set up a Chinese subsidiary, Facebook Technology (Hang Zhou) Ltd., earlier this month, according to a filing with the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. The subsidiary, ...