News

Bloomberg Megvii Inc., a Chinese developer of facial-recognition technology, has raised about $460 million from investors including billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial and one of China’s largest state-backed venture funds, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Beijing-based company, also known as Face++, has attracted several other investors including the Russia-China Investment Fund, a venture backed by sovereign ...

Bloomberg Tata Steel Ltd.’s India head TV Narendran has been appointed global chief executive officer and managing director as the steelmaker returns to profitability, and sets about implementing an agreement with Thyssenkrupp AG to combine European steel businesses. Narendran has helmed the Indian and South East Asian operations since November 2013, the company said in a filing. It also reappointed ...

­­­­­­­­­­­Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp.’s talks to merge US unit Sprint Corp. with T-Mobile US Inc. have hit a serious snag, according to people familiar with the matter, throwing the deal into jeopardy after months of talks. In the past three days, the companies have been unable to get past differences over valuation, according to a person close to T-Mobile parent ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc. is designing iPhones and iPads for 2018 that don’t use components from Qualcomm Inc. amid an escalating dispute between the companies, according to a person familiar with the matter. The product plans are in the early stages and may still change, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Apple may ...

Bloomberg Look out, Detroit: Toyota Motor Corp. is on a roll in the US. Toyota took 15 percent market share last quarter for the first time since 2009. Its RAV4 car-based sport utility vehicle is the industry’s most popular vehicle this year aside from the top pickups, outselling even its own Camry midsize sedan. It beat Ford Motor Co. each ...

Bloomberg The Internet Association, a Washington-based group with members that include Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., is advising lawmakers to clarify the responsibility of advertising platforms ahead of the companies’ testimony to Congress on the extent of Russian influence on their networks. The lobbying group wrote a series of principles, suggesting that the Federal Election Commission should ...

Bloomberg Ironically, Cobalt, Ontario—population 1,100—was built on silver. Remnants of a boom that transformed the town more than a century ago are everywhere. A mine headframe still protrudes from the roof of the bookstore, which was previously a grocery. The butcher used to toss unwanted bones down an abandoned 350-foot shaft in the middle of the shop floor and keep ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Over 2,000 hospitality and leisure projects are currently underway in the GCC with a combined estimated value of $200 billion, event organisers announce ahead of The Big 5 next month. An estimated $64 billion worth of related projects in the construction pipeline, coupled with increasingly relaxed visa policies highlight a developing focus on strengthening the regional ...

DUBAI / WAM The Dubai Government has invested around $20 billion in the development of the emirate’s infrastructure and transport during the period from 2006 to 2016, Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), stated. “The Dubai Government has pumped billions of dirhams in this sector and the ...

Dubai / Emirates Business Emirates NBD delivered a strong set of results with net profit up 15% to AED 6.17 billion for the first nine months of 2017. Net interest income improved 4% y-o-y due to loan growth and helped by a sustained improvement in margins. The operating performance was also supported by lower expenses and an improved cost of ...