February, 2019

• 2 February

  Germany shouldn’t rush to abandon coal by 2038

  

  Policy decisions about climate change are among the toughest a government can make: Any change in direction is practically guaranteed to displease the stakeholders. A commission set up by the German government to work out how the country will phase out coal called for ending the fuel’s use by 2038. Energy companies, labor unions and environmentalists are all unhappy. The ...

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• 2 February

  Anbang Insurance is not that ‘toxic’

  

  Foreign firms eager for a $119 billion slice of China’s insurance market might just want to give Anbang Insurance Group Co.’s assets a closer look. You’d be forgiven for wanting to steer clear of a firm that’s become the face of China’s toxic debt binge. But the timing could be right: It’s been almost a year since Beijing seized temporary ...

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• 2 February

  ECB’s Mario Draghi is searching for the crash mats

  

  Like Nadia Comaneci at the 1976 Olympics, Mario Draghi might have hoped for a perfect 10 from anyone judging his performance as president of the European Central Bank. But an incipient slowdown in the euro zone risks spoiling his routine just months before he bows out. The ECB’s decision to end its net asset purchases at the end of 2018 ...

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• 2 February

  Apple plans new 3D camera for 2020 iPhones

  

  Bloomberg Apple Inc. plans to launch iPhones with a more-powerful 3-D camera as soon as next year, stepping up the company’s push into augmented reality, according to people familiar with the plans. The rear-facing, longer-range 3-D camera is designed to scan the environment to create three-dimensional reconstructions of the real world. It will work up to about 15 feet from ...

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• 2 February

  Nokia slumps over ‘bumpier’ 5G outlook

  

  Bloomberg Nokia Oyj forecast a stagnant market for phone equipment this year, sending shares down the most in six months as investors looking for signs it could benefit from a crackdown on Chinese rival Huawei Technologies Co. were disappointed. Nokia also projected weaker-than-expected 2019 earnings as carriers delay buying the 5G systems that are key to its growth, including in ...

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• 2 February

  China blocks Microsoft Bing due to tech error

  

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp.’s search engine Bing was blocked in China due to an accidental technical error rather than an attempt at censorship, according to people familiar with the matter, and the search engine is once again accessible in the country. The government had no intention to block Bing when it stopped working. Microsoft said in a statement that Bing’s service ...

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• 2 February

  A tech firm far from Silicon Valley churns out billionaires

  

  Bloomberg Adyen NV says it saves merchants millions of dollars by streamlining card-payment transactions. The fintech firm, thousands of miles from Silicon Valley, is making its founders a lot more. Chief Executive Officer Pieter van der Does, Chief Technology Officer Arnout Schuijff and former innovation director John Caspers have all become billionaires since Adyen’s June initial public offering, according to ...

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• 2 February

  Amazon, Walmart reel as India curbs plunge market into chaos

  

  Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.’s grand plans for India were thrown into chaos after the country implemented new e-commerce regulations, which could cut their growth in the market by as much as half this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government tightened rules for the retail giants after strident complaints from small shops and domestic sellers. Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart ...

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• 2 February

  Boeing vows new cash gusher after sales top $100bn

  

  Bloomberg Boeing Co. soared after reporting record cash for 2018 while cracking the $100 billion sales barrier for the first time in its 102 years — and the US planemaker says the best is yet to come. Revenue, earnings and cash are all poised to rise this year, building on fourth-quarter earnings that beat estimates, the company said in a ...

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• 2 February

  Airbus jetliner unit hit by cyber breach

  

  Bloomberg Airbus SE said its jetliner business was hit by a data breach that gave intruders access to some employees’ personal information. There was no impact on aircraft production, the European planemaker said in a statement. Airbus said it was in contact with regulators and data-protection authorities as it probes the origins of the intrusion. “Investigations are ongoing to understand ...

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