August, 2019

• 3 August

  The maker of Aston Martin is struggling to stay on the road

  

  Can the company behind Aston Martin avoid tapping its shareholders? Yes, if everything goes to plan. The snag is that Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings Plc is proving increasingly accident prone. Shares in the sports car maker fell as much as 22 percent. That’s all too familiar. The stock dropped 26 percent and 18 percent on consecutive days last week. ...

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• 3 August

  Solar and mobile will fuel Africa’s future economy

  

  Backyard industrialisation has been tried; it was a miserable failure. During the so-called Great Leap Forward in China under Mao Zedong, peasants were encouraged to erect steel furnaces in their back yards. Predictably, most people had no idea how to build a mini steel plant much less make steel, and there was no market for their wares. The result was ...

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• 3 August

  Apple faces life after iPhone, but banks on its flagship product

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc generated less than half of its total quarterly revenue from sales of the iPhone for the first time since 2012 — a sign the company is entering life beyond its flagship product. While Apple reported a record $11.5 billion in sales of services in the fiscal third quarter, and demonstrated strong performances from wearables such as the ...

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• 3 August

  Voice software pioneer says Amazon used its tech in Alexa

  

  Bloomberg A voice software tech developer is suing Amazon.com, saying the e-commerce giant infringed on patents when developing software for the Alexa digital assistant. VB Assets LLC, which owns the rights to some of the technology developed by voice software pioneer VoiceBox Technologies, said in a lawsuit filed in Delaware federal court that Amazon infringed on six of its patents ...

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• 3 August

  BMW profit drops 20% on its EV rollout

  Bloomberg BMW AG’s profit fell 20 percent in the second quarter as the company accelerates a rollout of electric vehicles. In Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger’s final quarter, earnings before interest and taxes declined to 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) from 2.74 billion euros a year earlier. Analysts had expected 2.19 billion euros. After a loss in the first quarter, ...

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• 3 August

  Ford acquires defense contractor to get robot rides on road

  

  Bloomberg As Ford Motor Co bears down on a self-imposed deadline to field robotaxis and driverless delivery vehicles in two years, the automaker has acquired a small defense contractor whose experience could help get auto-piloted cars on the road. Ford paid an undisclosed sum to acquire Quantum Signal AI, a 40-member team of roboticists operating out of a decommissioned 1930s-era ...

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• 3 August

  British Airways, pilots union to continue talks to avert strike

  

  Bloomberg British Airways (BA) will continue talks with pilot representatives next week in a bid to defuse a pay dispute and avoid a walkout by its most crucial employees at the height of the summer travel season. The British Airlines Pilots Association (Balpa) agreed to extend negotiations with former the former UK flag carrier, now a unit of IAG SA, ...

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• 3 August

  Boeing is redesigning 737 Max flight controls to make it more reliable

  

  Bloomberg Boeing Co is redesigning the flight-control system of the grounded 737 Max to rely on data from both of the jetliner’s flight-control computers instead of just one, said a person familiar with the plans. The US planemaker is still aiming to present a final software package to regulators by September, though the timeline could slip, said the person, who ...

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• 3 August

  Yum sales climb as Taco bell leads charge

  Bloomberg Yum! Brands Inc’s latest quarterly sales climbed more than expected, propelled by strength at Taco Bell and KFC, its strongest divisions. Even laggard Pizza Hut showed some new signs of life. Comparable sales at Yum rose 5 percent last quarter, up from 1 percent in the year-ago period. That topped the 3.1 percent average estimate from Consensus Metrix. Taco ...

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• 3 August

  New York’s Bunge soars on its investment in Beyond Meat

  

  Bloomberg Bunge Ltd earnings surged in the second quarter as an investment in Beyond Meat Inc helped cushion the 201-year-old firm from a tough environment for agribusiness. Shares rose. Nearly half of Bunge’s better-than-expected earnings came from its investment arm’s stake in the faux-meat company. Beyond Meat has soared 680 percent since its May initial public offering as part of ...

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