Bloomberg The European Union blocked CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s bid to create the U.K.’s biggest mobile carrier, the latest setback to consolidation that telecommunications operators say they need to funnel money into new networks. Hutchison’s plan to buy Telefonica SA’s U.K. mobile-phone business for as much as 10.25 billion pounds ($14.8 billion) and merge it with its Three unit …

  Bloomberg The trend for ultra-long European bond sales is gathering pace. Spain is the latest euro-region sovereign to sell 50-year bonds, with an issue via banks that’s likely to price on Wednesday. It follows half-century deals last month from France and Belgium as countries take advantage of historically low interest rates to issue ultra-long debt. Italy’s debt agency said …

  Bloomberg Forget for a minute that the flower industry sells beauty and fragrance. Underneath its elegance is a business as cutthroat as Game of Thrones with mulch. Take the case of the Candy Bouquet, a pretty, magenta-and-yellow flower that resembles a petunia. It was developed by a German grower, WesthoffVertriebsgesellschaftMBH, that says it was on the verge of selling …