It’s clear after election in Germany that the electoral failures of established socialist parties in Europe are not a few isolated events but a trend, an existential crisis for the center-left. There are few better illustrations of this crisis than Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz’s futile anger at Chancellor Angela Merkel in the aftermath of Sunday’s election. Schulz called her ...
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Amazon girds for rivals Apple, Google in home devices push
Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc., girding for competition from Apple Inc. and Google in the race to equip homes with smart devices, unveiled a slew of consumer gadgets including an Alexa-powered digital-home hub, a smaller and cheaper Echo speaker and a new mini Echo with a screen, called Spot. Though hardware products aren’t key to Amazon’s bottom line, they serve as important ...
Read More »Roku IPO 2017’s best for tech stock debut with 68% jump
Bloomberg Roku Inc.’s trading debut has catapulted it among the biggest gainers for newly listed technology and communications stocks as investors bet on the success of streaming video. The shares closed at a high on its first day of trading at $23.50, up 68 percent from its $14-a-share initial public offering price. That surpassed MuleSoft Inc.’s first day rise in ...
Read More »Toshiba inks $18billion deal to sell chip arm to Bain group
Bloomberg Toshiba Corp. signed a final agreement to sell its flash memory chip business to a group led by Bain Capital for about $18 billion, moving a step closer to completing the deal after months of contentious negotiations. The Bain consortium includes major technology players Apple Inc., Dell Inc., SK Hynix Inc. and Japan’s Hoya Corp., while Toshiba itself will ...
Read More »Apple urged to activate iPhone’s FM radio chip after hurricanes
Bloomberg For 19 nonstop hours as Hurricane Irma lashed Florida, disc jockey Nio Fernandez broadcast updates in Spanish from the 92.5 Maxima radio studios in St. Petersburg, fielding updates from those trapped in their homes as wind and rain whipped through the area. “There was a sense of desperation in people’s voices,†he said of callers to the station. “They ...
Read More »Lehman Brothers, Citigroup settle US$2bn financial crisis-era dispute
Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. and the wreckage of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. have resolved a fight over $2.1 billion that dates to the financial crisis, while quietly burying a key question about derivatives-trading practices. Citigroup agreed that it will give back $1.74 billion to the estate of the failed New York-based investment bank. Citigroup had kept about $2.1 billion that Lehman ...
Read More »Ex-Barclays trader dodged $1mn fine over ‘power disruption’
Bloomberg A former Barclays Plc trader who bragged about disrupting the western U.S. power market more than a decade ago dodged a $1 million fine by a US regulator for alleged manipulation. Ryan Smith convinced a federal judge in Sacramento, California, that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission waited too long to bring its case against him for allegedly scheming with ...
Read More »HSBC to pay $175mn to settle Fed probe of FX practices
Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has been fined $175 million by the Federal Reserve after a long-running probe found that foreign-exchange traders had been front-running client orders, sharing confidential customer details with dealers at other firms and attempting to rig currency benchmarks. The Fed order detailed multiple instances of improper behavior, including allegations that traders may have conspired with counterparts at ...
Read More »Morgan Stanley says ‘party’s just begun’ for Indian stock funds
Bloomberg The recent flood of cash into Indian stock funds is just the beginning, as the nation’s growing savings chase equity returns amid decreasing appetite for gold, property and fixed income, according to Morgan Stanley. “We’ve just started, the party has just begun,†said Ridham Desai, managing director at Morgan Stanley India Co. Pvt. The nation’s total financial savings are ...
Read More »Cryptocurrencies drop as S Korea bans ICOs, margin trading
Bloomberg Ethereum and bitcoin dropped after South Korea banned domestic initial coin offerings (ICOs) and margin trading in cryptocurrencies. The Financial Services Commission in Seoul said all forms of ICOs are prohibited in the country, including projects that share profits, rights, dividends, and other ‘coin-style’ offerings, according to a statement. The commission also banned practice of loaning funds to trade ...
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