What could possibly attract Bain Capital about an airline that hardly ever generates cash? Loyalty is almost certain to be the answer. Administrators for Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd at Deloitte agreed to sell the second-ranked Australian airline to the private equity firm after it collapsed in April owing A$6.8 billion ($4.7 billion). In a sign of what a difficult path ...

Microsoft Corp was never going to rival Apple Inc in retail, or gain much from it. The coronavirus pandemic provided a good opportunity to face that fact and throw in the towel. The software giant announced it will permanently close all of its Microsoft Store brick-and-mortar locations. The company’s stores, which were primarily based inside malls, were temporarily shuttered in ...

The Covid-19 pandemic is intensifying the most destructive trends in global trade. Support for free trade has given way to talk of decoupling and de-globalisation. Tensions between the US and China are rising, as are calls for protectionism and re-shoring of far-flung supply chains. It is no longer seen as desirable, or even possible, to integrate countries that possess different ...