As the Wuhan coronavirus spreads to America, it now seems quite possible the United States will face some considerable logistical challenges. Even if the virus turns out not to be very deadly, or mutates into a safer form, the public will not know that for some time. In the meantime, a mix of justifiable risk-aversion and perhaps panic will strain ...

When the world’s competition police reflect on big tech’s dealmaking over the past 15 years, you could forgive them for wondering what might have been. If Facebook Inc. hadn’t acquired WhatsApp or Instagram, or if Google hadn’t bought YouTube or DoubleClick, would there be stronger competition for the two Silicon Valley firms? It certainly seems that regulators, particularly in the ...

Samsung Electronics Co.’s earnings report and outlook reflect doom and gloom. Many are surprised. Positive signs from chip rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and smartphone stalwart Apple Inc. had fed the belief that the South Korean giant would put the worst behind it. The key takeaway here is that a rising tide doesn’t lift all boats. On the surface, as ...

Lots of companies talk a good game about cutting planet-heating greenhouse emissions but their disclosures and targets have tended to focus on the emissions over which they have direct control and which are easiest to measure. That’s fine in an industry such as cement, where the bulk of carbon pollution occurs during the production process. From an environmental perspective these ...

When Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on a spinning wheel, the rest of the kingdom went to sleep along with her. Not so in China. As an epidemic rages, many provinces have extended their Lunar New Year holiday by weeks, but financial markets – from commodities and stock exchanges to bond clearing houses – will resume operating on Monday. The ...

There are two key takeaways from the earnings that Apple Inc. reported: IPhones still matter, and wearables are big. On the surface, it would appear that investors can bet on the continuing success of Apple Watch and the surging popularity of AirPods Pro to take up the slack left by declining iPhone revenue. From there, money from services including music, ...

Bloomberg As the flat white trounces black tea, Lipton owner Unilever is weighing a sale of one of its best-known brands. The Anglo-Dutch giant initiated a review of its global tea business, which includes the more than century-old label and generates sales of almost $3.3 billion. The move comes after the company’s slowest quarterly growth in a decade. Unilever is ...

Bloomberg Indian officials met with as many as nine companies during roadshows to gauge interest in a stake sale in the nation’s loss-making flag carrier, people with knowledge of the matter said. Officials from the South Asian nation met executives of companies including British Airways parent IAG SA, IndiGo, India’s biggest airline that’s operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, SpiceJet Ltd ...

Bloomberg The fast-spreading coronavirus could spell the end for the weakest airlines as travel demand dries up in and out of China. The outbreak, which originated in the Chinese city Wuhan, has claimed 200 lives. Total infections have soared past 11,700 in China, surpassing the country’s official number from the 2003 Sars epidemic. Sars cost the global economy an estimated ...

Bloomberg Hennes & Mauritz AB appointed Helena Helmersson as the first female chief executive officer of the fast-fashion pioneer, taking over from founding family scion Karl-Johan Persson, who struggled to contain competition from cheaper rivals and online platforms that revolutionised shopping. Helmersson was previously head of operations, and Persson moves to the supervisory board after more than a decade, where ...