International News

Bloomberg After selling billions of dollars of debt backed by consumer loans in 2017, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is pausing such fundraising as the government steps up curbs on micro lending. The company hasn’t sold any asset-backed securities (ABS) since early December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and China Securitization Analytics. That marks an abrupt shift after ...

Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. missed analyst profit estimates as South Korea’s surging currency and year-end bonuses outweighed display orders from Apple Inc. for the new iPhone X. Operating income was 15.1 trillion won ($14.2 billion) in the three months ended in December, missing the average of estimates by 1 trillion won. Shares fell in Seoul after the result. Samsung is ...

Bloomberg Baidu Inc. unveiled a souped-up version of its open self-driving platform, declaring rapid progress with partners from Microsoft Corp. to TomTom NV in developing autonomous cars for China and beyond. China’s largest search engine used the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to announce an upgrade for its Apollo software, which it says will allow cars to drive on ...

Bloomberg Didi Chuxing became China’s reigning car-hailing service by pummeling Uber into submission. Now it wants to do the same in bike-sharing, joining an increasingly pitched battle between arch-foes Mobike and Ofo. Didi declared it wants to become a “comprehensive” platform for bike-sharing, co-opting struggling No. 3 player Bluegogo and starting its own two-wheeler service. That’s a departure from a ...

Bloomberg Renren Inc. has cancelled a potential initial coin offering after Chinese regulators discouraged the Beijing-based social network from pursuing the plan, people familiar with the matter said. Regulators, which declared ICOs in China illegal, have held talks with Renren and other Chinese companies that sought to skirt the rules on such offerings, according to the people, who asked not ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump told a group of farmers that recent tax cuts and deregulation will revitalise the US rural economy. Trump’s speech at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual conference in Nashville was his first policy address since Congress passed the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul. He said agricultural producers, businesses and workers will all benefit from the legislation, and ...

Bloomberg Aston Martin is targeting a valuation of as much as $6.8 billion in a potential initial public offering of the British sports car maker, according to people familiar with the matter. The manufacturer has held preliminary talks with advisers about a valuation including debt that would put it on par with Ferrari NV, said the people, who asked not ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. faces a French criminal probe into allegations from consumer groups that it’s deliberately shortening the life of iPhones. The investigation, confirmed by Paris prosecutors, comes just weeks after the US technology giant apologised to customers for software changes it says unintentionally reduced the performance of older smartphones to prevent unexpected shutdowns. The authorities opened a preliminary investigation ...

Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Co. has failed to strike a deal for AT&T Inc. to sell its flagship phones to American consumers, a setback for China’s top mobile-phone maker, which was expected to unveil a partnership with a US carrier as early as this week, according to people familiar with the matter. Even without an immediate partner that would help it ...

Bloomberg The engineer who was fired by Google after he criticised its diversity policies claims in a lawsuit that he and others at the internet giant were harassed over their conservative political views. James Damore filed a class-action complaint after setting off a firestorm in August with a 10-page memo blasting Google’s “left bias” for creating a “politically correct monoculture.” ...