April, 2019

• 6 April

  Masa Son’s easy way to make $1bn a year

  

  Masayoshi Son is a very clever man. SoftBank Group Corp., his giant Japanese conglomerate, is in talks with investors to add as much as $15 billion to its Vision Fund, according to Bloomberg News. The $100 billion venture capital fund has already deployed more than $70 billion in tech companies. Son is right on the money. Even if you set ...

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• 6 April

  The Renault-Nissan alliance against Carlos Ghosn

  

  The downfall of Carlos Ghosn, once idolised as the globe-trotting genius who turned France’s Renault SA and Japan’s Nissan Motor Co. into the world’s biggest automaking alliance, is turning into a tale of back-stabbing politics, corporate self-interest and excessive greed worthy of grand opera. It’s hard to see how anyone comes out of this looking like a hero – and ...

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• 6 April

  Amazon readies AirPods rival as first Alexa wearable

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc is trying a new way to take its Alexa digital assistant mobile: wireless earbuds that mirror Apple Inc’s popular AirPods. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant is readying earbuds with built-in Alexa access for as early as the second half of this year, according to people with knowledge of the plans. The headphones will look and act similar to ...

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• 6 April

  Ford reboots its European strategy with electrification

  

  Bloomberg Ford Motor Co will roll out four plug-in hybrids and two battery-powered models in its latest effort to boost its loss-making business in Europe, where manufacturers face slowing sales and tightening emissions rules. The US carmaker said it will offer a new compact Puma, part of a revamped SUV lineup that includes the Explorer and an overhauled version of ...

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• 6 April

  Fastest electric car chargers waiting for batteries to catch up

  

  Bloomberg The viability of electric vehicles depends in part on a manufacturing plant in eastern Australia, where gleaming white cabinets the size of large refrigerators are loaded onto shipping crates. They’re among the most advanced car chargers available, promising to deliver a full tank of juice in minutes. Automakers and energy companies are spearheading the global rollout of these ultra-fast ...

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• 6 April

  Trump urges Fed to slash rates to boost economy

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump called on the Federal Reserve to open the monetary floodgates to turn the world’s largest economy into a “rocket ship.” “I personally think the Fed should drop rates. I think they really slowed us down. There’s no inflation. I would say in terms of quantitative tightening, it should actually now be quantitative easing,” he told reporters ...

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• 6 April

  SocGen plans 700 Paris job cuts after tough first quarter

  

  Bloomberg Societe Generale SA plans to cut as many as 700 jobs in Paris and eliminate hundreds more positions in London and New York after experiencing a difficult first-quarter in investment banking, people with knowledge of the matter said. The French bank is speeding up staff reductions at its headquarters after tough trading conditions persisted into the new year and ...

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• 6 April

  Swedbank chairman quits as scandal rips through top ranks

  

  Bloomberg A week after Swedbank AB fired its chief executive officer, the lender is parting ways with its chairman as a multibillion dollar money-laundering scandal forces top-level changes. Lars Idermark has decided to leave Sweden’s oldest bank and biggest mortgage lender with immediate effect, Swedbank said in a statement. That follows a March 28 announcement that CEO Birgitte Bonnesen had ...

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• 6 April

  Commerzbank chief Zielke lobbies for merger deal amid mounting opposition

  

  Bloomberg Commerzbank AG Chief Executive Officer Martin Zielke, almost three weeks into formal discussions about a combination with Deutsche Bank AG, is lobbying hard to overcome internal opposition to the idea. The lender doesn’t have the market share needed for costly investments to pay off, Zielke told employees in a memo. Low interest rates are squeezing profits, regulatory expenses have ...

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• 6 April

  Iceland sees space for rate cut after wage pact

  

  Bloomberg Iceland’s central bank now has more scope to cut interest rates as a result of this week’s agreement between workers and employers, despite an “unfortunate” clause in the deal that ties planned pay hikes to monetary policy, Governor Mar Gudmundsson said. “The break-even inflation rate in the market has now slumped, the exchange rate has been strengthening and our ...

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