February, 2019

• 11 February

  Toshiba to slash operating profit forecast by half

  

  Bloomberg Toshiba will cut its year operating profit forecast to between 20 billion and 30 billion yen ($180 million and $270 million) from the 60 billion-yen projection it made in November, Nikkei Asian Review reported, without saying where the information came from. Increased costs in sectors like energy are dragging down earnings from core operations, the report said. Toshiba will ...

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• 11 February

  Apple iPhone shipments down by 20% in China

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc.’s Chinese smartphone shipments plummeted an estimated 20 percent in 2018’s final quarter, underscoring the scale of the iPhone maker’s retreat in the world’s largest mobile device arena against local rivals like Huawei Technologies Co. The domestic market contracted 9.7 percent in the quarter, but Apple declined at about twice that pace, research firm IDC said in a ...

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• 11 February

  Ghosn effect: Nissan, Renault operating profit forecast to decline this fiscal year

  

  Bloomberg What kind of financial blow has the widening scandal surrounding Carlos Ghosn delivered to Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA? Investors are about to get a glimpse when closely watched earnings releases come out this week. The alliance partners have spent the last two months coping with a major reputational hit from Ghosn’s arrest, indictments by Tokyo prosecutors over ...

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• 11 February

  UK economy wilts amid Brexit jitters

  

  Bloomberg The UK economy buckled under the strain of Brexit uncertainty in the fourth quarter. Gross domestic product (GDP) increased a smaller-than-forecast 0.2 percent, compared with 0.6 percent in the third quarter. December alone saw the economy shrink by 0.4 percent, the most since before the 2016 vote to leave the European Union. The slowdown over the quarter came as ...

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• 11 February

  Drugmaker Bristol-Myers gains after Starboard Value takes stake

  

  Bloomberg Shares of drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. gained, with acquisition target Celgene Corp. falling after activist hedge fund Starboard Value was said to have taken a stake in Bristol-Myers. The size of Starboard’s stake and any plans that Jeff Smith’s hedge fund might have for its investment in the $81 billion drugmaker couldn’t immediately be learned when Bloomberg reported the ...

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• 11 February

  Panalpina investor rebuffs DSV’s $4bn takeover offer

  

  Bloomberg Panalpina Welttransport Holding AG’s largest shareholder rejected a $4.2 billion offer from Denmark’s DSV A/S, saying the Swiss air-cargo company would do better with its own expansion plan. The Panalpina committee of the Ernst Goehner Foundation, which holds 45.9 percent of the stock, said in a statement it “supports Panalpina’s board of directors in pursuing an independent growth strategy ...

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• 11 February

  Europe’s scooter startups talk merger

  

  Bloomberg Europe’s scooter startups Tier Mobility and Voi Technology AB have held early-stage discussions to combine their operations, in response to the impact of larger US rivals on the continent, according to people familiar with the discussions. The talks, which started in November, recently stalled after Voi concluded that it could continue its growth independently, one person said. All of ...

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• 11 February

  US strikes back at Russia in cyberspace warfare

  

  With little public fanfare, US Cyber Command, the military’s new center for combating electronic attacks against the United States, has launched operations to deter and disrupt Russians who have been meddling with the US political system. Like other US cyberwar activities, this effort against Russia is cloaked in secrecy. But it appears to involve, in part, a warning to suspected ...

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• 11 February

  Macron is happy to fight with Italy

  

  Emmanuel Macron has followed the old adage: Never waste a good crisis. As relations with Italy go from bad to toxic, the French president has taken the unprecedented step of recalling his ambassador from Italy — the kind of diplomatic spat that doesn’t usually happen between big EU member states. It’s calculated to embarrass Luigi Di Maio, Italy’s deputy prime ...

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• 11 February

  Just what we need, more Amazon HQ2 drama

  As if Amazon.com Inc.’s search for a second headquarters didn’t have enough reality-show-esque plot twists brought yet more. The e-commerce behemoth is reevaluating its decision to set up an office in New York that was to bring 25,000 jobs to Long Island City, according to a report in The Washington Post. Amazon is reportedly considering the turnabout amid backlash from ...

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