Bloomberg Vonovia SE will become the largest landlord in Sweden after buying Stockholm-based apartment owner Hembla AB for about $1.3 billion. Following its 2018 purchase of Victoria Park, the deal is the German company’s second in the Swedish market and will increase its portfolio in the country to more than 38,000 apartments, overtaking Rikshem and Heimstaden, according to Vonovia. Germany’s ...

Bloomberg Google workers will listen to audio snippets of people speaking to its digital voice assistant to help improve the product’s quality — if users give the company permission to do so. Alphabet Inc’s Google paused all human review of assistant audio in July after a Dutch contractor leaked some clips to a journalist, who was then able to identify ...

Bloomberg Germany’s private sector is suffering its worst downturn in almost seven years as a manufacturing slump deepens, raising pressure on the government to add fiscal stimulus. A Purchasing Manager’s Index fell to 49.1 in September from 51.7 a month earlier, according to IHS Markit. The reading was worse than economists predicted and the lowest since October 2012. It’s also ...