Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. has lined up commitments for a loan of about $9 billion for its massive Vision Fund, provided by banks including arrangers of its Japanese wireless business’s initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said. The IPO’s top underwriters, which include Nomura Holdings Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., are finalising terms of the loan ...

Bloomberg Australia’s jobless rate fell to the lowest in more than six years in September as fewer people sought work, suggesting the drop is unlikely to alter the Reserve Bank’s policy outlook. While unemployment fell from 5.3 percent to 5 percent — the level estimated by the central bank to signal full employment — the workforce participation rate declined to ...

Bloomberg Japan’s exports unexpectedly fell in September — the first drop in almost two years — as natural disasters disrupted economic activity, while higher energy prices continued to feed gains in imports. While one-off events make it difficult to assess the impact of the US-China trade dispute, Japanese export growth has been slowing this year following double-digit expansion in 2017. ...

Bloomberg Google will start charging smartphone makers that want to install its app store and services for devices sold in Europe, changes it says it must make to comply with a European Union antitrust order in July that brought a record 4.3 billion euro ($5 billion) fine. Starting from October 29, new phone models that install the Play store and ...

Bloomberg The Czech Republic must distribute its growing wealth more widely, and even a cooler economy won’t stop higher social expenditure and investment, according to the country’s finance chief. The richest former Soviet satellite is relaxing traditional spending controls that have underpinned one of Europe’s sturdiest budgets. Just five years after austerity exacerbated a record-long recession, Alena Schillerova — the ...

Bloomberg CVS Health Corp. and Aetna Inc received conditional approval to proceed with their proposed $68 billion merger, one of the largest in a series of recent deals that stand to transform the US health-care business. The combination would create a giant with a hand in insurance, prescription-drug benefits and drugstores across the US. By bringing those businesses under one ...

Bloomberg Swisscom AG is considering options for its Fastweb SpA unit, including a sale or partnership, that would increase the Italian business’s market share in mobile services, people familiar with the matter said. The company has discussed a tie-up with CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s local wireless unit, Wind Tre SpA, though the Hong Kong conglomerate isn’t interested in adding landline ...

Bloomberg International Business Machines Corp. is pressing deeper into its strategy of making cloud services more compatible with competitors, rather than trying to force customers into its own walled garden. IBM unveiled three new products to manage security, artificial intelligence and storage services across multiple cloud systems, regardless of whose they are. Having arrived late to the cloud revolution, IBM ...

Bloomberg Three commodities traders were charged by the US Justice Department with orchestrating a $60 million fraud that involved spoofing and conspiring to manipulate futures contracts, according to prosecutors and court filings in Houston. Yuchun “Bruce” Mao, a 39-year-old Chinese national, is accused of working with two other traders at his firm in a scheme to rig the purchase and ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump has thrust the issue of illegal immigration back to the fore of his political rallies, gambling that his combative rhetoric can galvanize his Republican base ahead of next month’s pivotal midterm elections. But so far there’s scant evidence the divisive issue that helped carry him to victory in 2016 will do the same for his party ...