June, 2019

• 25 June

  Stanford offers $4.7b for California housing, transit

  Bloomberg Stanford University, hoping to appease officials opposed to its planned expansion, is offering to spend $4.7 billion to relieve pressures on housing and transit that are plaguing residents of California’s Bay Area. The offer would be part of an agreement with Santa Clara County to support the school’s application for a long-term land use permit, according to a statement ...

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• 25 June

  AbbVie to acquire Botox maker Allergan for $63b

  

  Bloomberg AbbVie Inc. agreed to buy rival drugmaker Allergan Plc for $63 billion in a deal combining the makers of arthritis drug Humira and wrinkle treatment Botox in a bid to kindle growth. The takeover, at a value of $188.24 a share, is a 45 percent premium to Allergan’s closing price. Allergan rose 33 percent to $172 in pre-market trading ...

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• 25 June

  Capgemini to buy Altran for $4.1b in technology expansion push

  

  Bloomberg Capgemini SE said it will acquire Altran Technologies SA in a 3.6 billion-euro ($4.1 billion) deal in order to win more tech clients and keep up with rivals. Paris-based Capgemini is looking to maintain its position as a major IT consultancy in a consolidating industry, as competitors such as Accenture have been building out their sales from digital projects. ...

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• 25 June

  Apple to expand footprint in Seattle with office lease

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. is significantly increasing its footprint in Seattle as it expands on a previously announced plan to boost hiring, bringing an additional 2,000 jobs to the area in the next five years. The iPhone maker signed a lease for office space at 333 Dexter, a 660,000-square-foot (61,300-square-meter) development in the South Lake Union neighborhood being built by Kilroy ...

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• 25 June

  Glencore cuts out intermediaries as scrutiny grows

  

  Bloomberg Glencore Plc is cutting out many of its intermediaries — the agents and dealmakers once essential to cracking the toughest markets — amid growing scrutiny of its operations around the world. Under pressure from its compliance division, Glencore is dismantling much of its glo-bal network of trading agents, according to people familiar with the situation. To continue operating, the ...

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• 25 June

  Diplomatic path closed after US sanctions Khamenei: Iran

  

  Bloomberg Iran said the path to a diplomatic solution with the US had closed after the Trump administration imposed sanctions against its supreme leader and other top officials, raising tensions days after the downing of an American drone brought the Middle East to the brink of war. President Donald Trump unveiled sanctions on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and eight senior military ...

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• 25 June

  Merkel’s furious allies vow to stop French president’s EU power grab

  

  Bloomberg The European Union’s center-right alliance is determined to defy French President Emmanuel Macron in the race to nominate the next EU Commission chief, according to senior party officials. European conservatives were enraged that Macron blocked their candidate for commission president, Manfred Weber, at last week’s summit in Brussels, and suspect he is seeking to undermine their role, even though ...

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• 25 June

  Polish judicial reforms violate EU law, says court

  Bloomberg Poland’s sweeping judicial overhaul, which includes lowering the retirement age of Supreme Court judges, violates European Union rules, the bloc’s top court said in a stinging rebuke of measures described by government critics as a political “purge.” The Polish reform “is not justified by a legitimate objective” and “undermines the principle of the irremovability of judges, which is essential ...

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• 25 June

  Parliament ready to support no-deal Brexit, says Johnson

  

  Bloomberg Boris Johnson said he believed the British Parliament would now support a no-deal Brexit, even as senior figures in his Conservative Party warned they had the numbers to stop him if he tried to push one through. Johnson, a former foreign secretary, and the favourite to succeed Theresa May as prime minister, used a BBC interview to argue that ...

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• 25 June

  Putin’s big bet on gold is finally paying off

  

  For years, Russia has been the world’s biggest sovereign gold bug: Even while gold prices were in the doldrums, it doggedly kept increasing its reserves. Now that gold is at the highest level since 2013, the tactic appears to be paying off. The US dollar’s dominance as a global reserve currency is commonly thought to result from the dearth of ...

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