March, 2019

• 11 March

  Congress wrangling puts Philippines budget in limbo

  

  Bloomberg The Philippines is facing further budget delays that threaten to cut growth and stall infrastructure projects as lawmakers continue to fight over their share in the spending plan. Approval of the 3.76-trillion peso ($71.9 billion) budget may be delayed to August, Senate President Vicente Sotto said. He threatened to block its transmittal to President Rodrigo Duterte for final approval ...

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• 11 March

  Japan spring wage talks likely to disappoint as firms push back

  

  Bloomberg Japan Inc. is pushing back after years of pressure to give bigger pay raises that has been a key part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s campaign to restore stable economic growth. While wages have never reached the level sought by Abe, the results from annual wage talks to be released later this week are expected to show even smaller ...

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• 11 March

  Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi to adopt one board for alliance

  

  Bloomberg Nissan Motor Co., Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plan to form a single board that will oversee their alliance’s governance and operations, according to people familiar with the matter, as the automakers try to streamline their decision making following the arrest of Carlos Ghosn. The group will replace two separate Amsterdam-based alliance entities, Renault-Nissan BV and Nissan-Mitsubishi BV, ...

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• 11 March

  Nvidia to buy Mellanox for $6.9bn in data center push

  

  Bloomberg Nvidia Corp. agreed to buy chipmaker Mellanox Technologies Ltd. for $6.9 billion, gaining expertise to help it push into the growing market for data center components. Santa Clara, California-based Nvidia is paying $125 a share in cash for the company, which makes chips used to speed the flow of information across computer servers. That’s a 14 percent premium to ...

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• 11 March

  Barrick ends hostile bid for Newmont to form joint venture

  

  Bloomberg Barrick Gold Corp. is withdrawing its $17.8 billion hostile takeover bid for New- mont Mining Corp., with the companies opting instead to forge a joint venture around their Nevada projects. The change came weeks after Barrick proposed an all-share offer that would have created the world’s largest gold producer. After Newmont’s board rejected the bid, Newmont Chief Executive Officer ...

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• 11 March

  Google search dominance has businesses paying for name

  

  Bloomberg Google controls many of the ways businesses access customers online in the US, making it almost impossible to run a company without buying advertising from the internet giant. As politicians increase scrutiny of large technology companies, Google’s lock on these digital relationships is becoming a potential liability, not just a lucrative advantage praised each quarter by Wall Street analysts. ...

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• 11 March

  Twitter boosts efforts to plug personal data sharing

  

  Bloomberg Twitter Inc. added to efforts to address concerns over privacy protection on social media. In a tweet from its safety handle, the company announced an update to its abuse reporting functions, allowing users to specify personal information issues, with a GIF showing step-by-step instructions. The social media company earlier in the day tweeted an image on its main account ...

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• 11 March

  US payrolls shock hints at dawn of a slowdown

  

  Bloomberg The US labour market may not be as weak as February’s payrolls number suggested, but the report provides a reality check that a long-forecast slowdown is arriving. Employers added 20,000 jobs during the month, the fewest since September 2017, missing all economist estimates and bucking a recent trend of strong February readings. Analysts said the unexpectedly low figure doesn’t ...

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• 11 March

  Kim seen losing more than gaining if he tests missile

  

  Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is showing signs he might fire his first rocket in 15 months. Long-time observers suspect he is bluffing. Two days after Kim’s summit with US President Donald Trump broke down over sanctions relief and disarmament steps last month, satellite images showed that North Korea was rebuilding a long-range rocket site it recently dismantled. The ...

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• 11 March

  Estonian vote runner-up offers talks to populists

  Bloomberg Estonia’s ruling Center Party, the runner-up in parliamentary elections, unexpectedly invited anti-immigrant populists to coalition talks, raising the risk that nationalists may gain a voice in another European Union government. With the EU struggling to address gains made by euroskeptic nationalists in elections from Rome to Warsaw, Center invited the anti-establishment EKRE party and the junior ruling Isamaa to ...

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