Bloomberg McCormick & Co. agreed to acquire Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc’s food business for $4.2 billion, adding French’s mustard and Frank’s RedHot sauce to its lineup of spices and seasonings. The deal brings a stable of well-known condiments to Sparks, Maryland-based McCormick. For Reckitt Benckiser, unloading the products continues an overhaul that began with an expansion into baby formula through ...

Bloomberg China aims to make the artificial intelligence industry a “new, important” driver of economic expansion by 2020, according to a development plan issued by the State Council. Policy makers want to be global leaders, with the AI industry generating more than 400 billion yuan ($59 billion) of output per year by 2025, according to an announcement from the cabinet. ...

Bloomberg A Facebook message pops up on my phone screen. “What’s going on in your world?” It’s from a robot named Woebot, the brainchild of Stanford University psychologist Alison Darcy. Woebot seems to care about me. The app asks me for a list of my strengths, and remembers my response so it can encourage me later. It helps me set ...

Bloomberg Qualcomm Inc., the biggest maker of chips used in mobile phones, forecast steep declines in profit and licensing sales, underscoring its dependence on the royalties that one of its largest customers, Apple Inc., has stopped paying. Sales in the company’s licensing division, which collects fees for use of its mobile technology, will sink as much as 47 percent in ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp.’s turnaround plan got back on track in the latest quarter, buoyed by rising sales of internet-based software and services. Profit in the fiscal fourth quarter exceeded analysts’ estimates and adjusted sales rose 9 percent as demand almost doubled for Azure cloud services, which let companies store and run their applications in Microsoft data centers. A tax-rate benefit ...

KHOBAR / Reuters State oil firm Saudi Aramco is considering building new facilities to add production of Arabian Heavy crude from the Zuluf offshore oilfield, industry sources said. The central processing plant is expected to have two units, known as trains, with a total capacity of 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) to process Arabian Heavy crude supplied by electrical submersible ...

Dubai / WAM Emirates NBD recorded half-year net profits of AED3.9 billion, up 5 percent on higher net interest income, lower expenses and lower provisions. Net interest income improved 2 percent year-on-year due to loan growth and helped by a recent improvement in margins. Net interest margin improved since the beginning of the year as loans reset at higher rates ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The first of five turbines for the Hywind Scotland commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm has now sailed away from Stord in Norway to its final destination, Buchan Deep, 25 km east of Peterhead in Scotland. Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, announced that it had acquired a 25% stake in the Hywind Scotland project during Abu ...

BEIJING / WAM UAE Minister of State, Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, met on Wednesday with the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Yi, to discuss means of enhancing political, social, economic and trade relations between the two countries. Dr Al Jaber’s discussions with the Foreign Minister also included an exchange of sha- red views on extremism ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business The United Arab Emirates is most prepared for change among the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries, and the third most prepared in the world, KPMG’s 2017 Change Readiness Index (CRI) showed. The leading global audit, tax and advisory firm, launched the 2017 KPMG International Change Readiness Index, ranking 136 countries for their capacity to ...