Bloomberg Apple Inc. asked US securities regulators if it can exclude a shareholder proposal that pushes the iPhone maker to explore linking executive pay to performance on diversity and sustainability. In an October 9 letter made public this week by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Apple attorneys asked if it could exclude the proposal, from Zevin Asset Management, because similar ...

Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. appointed Tony West as chief legal officer, the first major hire for the new chief executive officer since taking over last month. West, the outgoing general counsel at PepsiCo Inc. and a former senior official at the US Justice Department, will join the ride-hailing company next month as it faces at least five federal criminal probes ...

Bloomberg When Toys “R” Us Inc. filed for bankruptcy last month, it vowed to keep operating stores, boosting investor optimism that the impact on the biggest toymakers this holiday season would be limited. But with Hasbro Inc.’s weaker-than-expected sales forecast and Mattel Inc.’s revenue trailing projections— and both companies citing Toys “R” Us as a key reason—the retailer’s struggles are ...

Bloomberg A post-earnings surge in Amazon.com Inc. shares on Friday pushed Jeff Bezos to the top of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index for the first time, vaulting him ahead of Bill Gates who had held the top spot as the richest person on Earth for more than four years. The founder and chief executive officer of the retail juggernaut added $10.4 ...

Bloomberg The European Union agreed to start internal preparations for the possibility of Brexit negotiations failing to reach a breakthrough at a crunch December summit, as the former British envoy to the EU said the UK’s trade goals were unrealistic. At a meeting in Brussels, the EU’s 27 governments without Britain approved work to start on their response to the ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s effort to form a new government hit a snag as negotiators diverged on European policy and climate change, highlighting the complexity of the unprecedented multi-party talks. While Merkel’s Christian Democrats, her CSU Bavarian sister party, the pro-market Free Democratic Party and the Greens committed to a “strong and united Europe,” negotiators remained apart on the ...

Bloomberg Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi ordered the suspension of military operations in areas disputed with the country’s Kurdish minority, the first sign of a rapprochement since their vote for independence last month. The 24-hour ceasefire will allow a joint Iraqi and Kurdish team to deploy federal Iraqi forces to the areas, Abadi said in a statement on Twitter. The ...

Bloomberg A moment of triumph, the declaration of Europe’s newest independent state, has quickly become the cold reality of what Catalonia’s separatists were always likely to face in their historic collision with Spain. Within hours of the parliament in Barcelona voting to break away, the would-be Catalan Republic was hit by the might of the Spanish state. Rather than leaving ...

Bloomberg Kenya is no closer to resolving months of political turmoil after millions of opposition supporters boycotted a Supreme Court-ordered repeat of its presidential election, raising the likelihood of another legal challenge to the outcome. Less than half of registered voters cast ballots, down from the 79 percent turnout for Aug. 8 elections that the court annulled because proper procedures ...

The NAFTA war is heating up. It’s a confusing conflict because perceptions are driven by political rhetoric, not economic reality. NAFTA, of course, stands for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has eliminated most tariffs among the United States, Mexico and Canada. During the campaign, candidate Donald Trump denounced NAFTA as a bad deal for the United States. He ...