Opinion

Private equity firms have a bone to pick with technology companies: Stop competing with us for deals. From Singapore to India, rivalry is mounting for coveted assets. It’s little wonder. The likes of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., SoftBank Group Corp. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. have deep pockets and plenty of patience. They invest in firms such as Paytm Mobile Solutions ...

Privatisation of India’s state-run economy has been hobbled by an extreme reluctance to cede control over companies that ultimately are vehicles of power and patronage. Except for a brief period in the early 2000s, when a minister dedicated to such disposals tried to drop “the baggage of 50 years of socialist discourse”, the preferred strategy has been to sell a ...

Here’s what Apple won’t say when it talks about its technology in schools: The company lost, and it will be tough to turn around its fortunes. Apple Inc. last week pitched a refreshed version of Apple’s basic iPad and software tailored for schools. (The price of the device remains $329 for most buyers and $299 for schools.) Apple has a ...

There are two textile-obsessed columnists at Bloomberg View. One, based in Kuala Lumpur, is writing a book about used goods, including the global trade in secondhand clothes. The other, based in Los Angeles, is also writing a book – about textiles, technology and trade. So we asked them if they’d want to discuss how they see global trends playing out ...

Explaining Japan’s economy to Western audiences is hard. One big reason for this is that explaining something as large and complex as a $5 trillion economy is an inherently difficult task — there are a lot of conflicting trends, regional differences and other wrinkles. A second reason is that Japan tends to be somewhat out of sync with the US ...

Big tech continues to dominate the news and has become a major driver of US stock markets. But the sector’s dominant narrative has changed in the last few months. Amazement at the power of disruptive innovation to change not just what we do but also how we do it is now accompanied, if not tempered, by concerns about misuse and ...

What could be a more perfect match than a cash-rich company with waning returns and a consummate dealmaker with an insatiable desire for investments? That may be the best lens through which to consider the news that Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to buy 25 percent of Swiss Re AG, in a deal that would value the ...

It may be one of the most opportune flubs in economics. A slip of the tongue by the US Treasury’s top international official offers one way out of the trade skirmish between the US and China. Few serious people want tariffs ordered by President Donald Trump and the Chinese import restrictions imposed in response to degenerate into a trade war ...

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has nine months to define what Brexit will actually mean and she’ll have to do battle on three fronts to get there—in Brussels, in Parliament and with her own Conservative Party. Her priorities are to decide what the future relationship with Europe might look like, solve the intractable puzzle of the Irish border and see ...

It tells you something about the priorities of Southeast Asia’s largest bank when it announces a hackathon to quickly recruit 100 budding technologists. DBS Group Holdings Ltd hired the same number last year, but this year its needs are spread over a wider skill set, including user-interface design and mobile-application development, even scrum mastery, which, I understand, has nothing to ...