April, 2019

• 16 April

  German investor confidence up on growth hopes

  Bloomberg Investor confidence in Germany’s growth outlook improved for the sixth consecutive month, underpinning hope for an economic rebound later this year. A gauge measuring prospects for the next half year rose to 3.1 in April, beating an estimate for a gain to 0.5. The positive reading means optimists are outnumbering pessimists among survey participants for the first time since ...

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• 16 April

  Hulu buys out AT&T’s 9.5% stake for $1.4bn

  

  Bloomberg And then there were two. Hulu LLC, an online-streaming venture backed by the biggest companies in entertainment, bought out AT&T Inc.’s 9.5 percent stake in a deal worth about $1.43 billion. The accord, which values the whole entity at $15 billion, leaves the business with just a pair of owners: Walt Disney Co., which has majority control, and Comcast ...

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• 16 April

  The best way to trade Brexit delay is just across UK border

  

  Bloomberg Investors scouting for the best way to trade the Brexit delay should just look across the UK border — at Ireland’s bonds. The securities are seen as offering the right mix of safety and returns as the deferral of Britain’s exit from the European Union dispels anxiety over the most contentious Brexit issue — that of the Irish border. ...

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• 16 April

  Does Assange merit First Amendment protection?

  

  Is Julian Assange a journalist? The Justice Department sidestepped that question in its indictment of Assange. But his case is still certain to stir a debate about whether the WikiLeaks founder deserves protection under the First Amendment. Assange was arrested in London on April 11, as US prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing him of conspiring with Chelsea Manning to hack ...

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• 16 April

  Uber, Lyft leave their drivers behind

  

  The difference between tech insiders and the hoi polloi is that the tech insiders make their real money long before a company goes public. This is especially true of the so-called unicorns — those tech companies with pre-IPO valuations of $1 billion or more. The insiders invest when the company is still in its early stages, while it’s raising money ...

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• 16 April

  Even for a bank, 12,000 job cuts seems excessive

  Ten thousand here, another couple thousand there. Lately, dramatic job cuts seem to be par for the course at the world’s banks. Even by those standards, though, Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s plan to trim 10,000 to 12,000 jobs is eye-popping. The lender is “secretly” preparing to cut a quarter of its workforce in coming years, and shutter up to a ...

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• 16 April

  China’s ‘Belt and Road’ won’t be a path to power

  TThe global economic development initiative that China calls “One Belt, One Road” is considered one of Beijing’s major instruments in its geopolitical conflict with the US. But it’s unlikely to do much to boost Chinese power as it helps most of the world. China is investing in fixed assets and infrastructure from southeast Asia to the Balkans and East Africa. ...

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• 16 April

  Brexit Britain is really tired of its weak leaders

  

  After almost three years of wrangling and gridlock following the 2016 European Union (EU) referendum, more than half of British voters say they long for a strong leader. It’s not an unreasonable demand in the current bleak situation. The 2019 “Audit of Political Engagement” by the Hansard Society (a group co-led by the speakers of the two houses of the ...

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• 16 April

  Softbank’s Masa Son has $7.7b Uber ticket to ride

  

  The SoftBank Vision Fund paid about $7.7 billion for its 16.3 percent stake in Uber Technologies Inc. A more important number is what Uber’s bankers can turn that into when the ride-sharing company IPOs on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Investors in the Vision Fund, and in Masayoshi Son’s listed SoftBank Group Corp., are rightly expecting a windfall. This ...

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• 16 April

  Department stores are dead? Nobody told Primark

  

  The department store isn’t dead. Turns out, it was just in the changing room. In the week that Debenhams Plc, once a household name, passed into the hands of its lenders, Primark opened its biggest ever-outlet in Birmingham. The new store is an upgrade on the old awkwardly shaped unit Primark had occupied in the city since 2002. At 160,000 ...

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