Tokyo / AFP Japan’s Toshiba on Wednesday offered camera maker Canon exclusive rights to buy its medical devices unit, as the engineering giant sells businesses to recover from a major accounting scandal. The announcement comes as Toshiba expects a whopping loss of about $6.0 billion for the year to March due to sagging global demand and a spectacular profit-padding scandal, ...

Beijing / Bloomberg Talk about a hostile takeover. What seemed like a straightforward consolidation of two Chinese cement makers has morphed into a test of President Xi Jinping’s push to streamline bloated industries and rebalance a lagging economy. Missing company chops, seized corporate offices, $700 million in bond defaults and suspended shares are major plot points in the story of ...

Bloomberg The Canadian government is signaling it could test the waters of quota-free softwood lumber trade with the U.S., a move expected to reignite a dispute that simmered for decades. Canada’s trade minister wouldn’t commit to reaching a deal before the U.S. is allowed to again place tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber. The previous softwood agreement, which included quotas and ...