When Google renamed itself Alphabet Inc in 2015, co-founder Larry Page revealed that one of the new name’s meanings was a pun: alpha-bet, as in “a bet on investment returns above a benchmark.” This implied that the so-called “Other Bets” in Google’s financial reports — subsidiaries that work on projects ranging from self-driving cars to cancer cures — aren’t just ...

Covid-19 is crushing developing countries such as India, Brazil and South Africa, and it won’t help to simply tinker with the patents on life-saving vaccines made by a handful of pharmaceutical companies. It’s more crucial that the pharmaceutical industry’s manufacturing and distribution expertise be brought to bear on this epic challenge, as Bloomberg Opinion’s editorial board has noted. Access to ...

Bloomberg The battle for the future of Scotland has begun after a dramatic set of British election results left the UK starkly divided. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party cemented its grip on Labour’s former heartlands in northern England, while in Scotland parties pushing to split away from the UK won a historic majority. That threw Johnson and Scottish National ...