Bloomberg A unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. agreed to buy Wilhelm Schulz GmbH, a closely held German maker of piping components, as the billionaire accelerates an expansion in Europe. Rainer Floeth, chief executive officer of Krefeld, Germany-based Wilhelm Schulz, confirmed by phone that Berkshire’s Precision Castparts had agreed to buy the company. He declined to elaborate on …

  I remember vividly the economic and financial mess President Barack Obama inherited when he was sworn in as the 44th US president eight years ago. Growth and trade were imploding, millions of Americans were losing their jobs, and the stock market was in free fall. This frightful combination was also playing out in many other countries, fueling a sense …

  Politics and meanness are undermining an attempt to create a new French aerospace champion. Safran SA’s 9.7 billion euro ($10.3 billion) offer for industry supplier Zodiac Aerospace is structured in a way that threatens to give the state a better deal than ordinary shareholders. Safran has secured the agreement of Zodiac’s board for a deal that’s been circling for …