January, 2019

• 19 January

  EU likely to block Siemens-Alstom rail merger plan

  

  Bloomberg The European Commission is expected to block a plan by Siemens AG and Alstom SA to merge their rail units over concerns that the deal betw-een two rivals would stifle competition in the region’s train-equipment market, according to people familiar with the matter. Proposed concessions aimed at allaying EU objections — plus a last-minute lobbying campaign from politicians warning ...

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• 19 January

  Privacy row: Facebook may face huge fine

  

  Bloomberg A US privacy investigation of Facebook Inc, begun after a major data breach was exposed in March, is likely to result in a record fine against the company, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s chief privacy watchdog, is weighing a penalty against the social-media giant for violating a 2011 settlement with ...

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• 19 January

  Microsoft pledges $500mn to boost affordable housing

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp said it will spend $500 million to develop affordable housing and help alleviate homelessness in the Seattle area, responding to a growing regional housing crisis that has strained the finances of many lower- and middle-income residents. Half the money will be spent to support low-income housing across King County with a further $225 million invested at lower ...

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• 19 January

  Tesla cuts over 3,000 jobs as Musk sees difficult road ahead

  

  Bloomberg Elon Musk is cutting Tesla Inc.’s workforce by 7 percent — or more than 3,000 jobs — warning that the “road ahead is very difficult” in making electric cars more affordable for the mass market. Tesla shares fell as much as 7.7 percent shortly after the start of regular trading. Musk wrote in a blog post that the Palo ...

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• 19 January

  With Brexit, is Britain leaping into the chaos?

  

  The poet Rupert Brooke voiced the exhilaration of those Britons who welcomed the war in 1914 as a chance to escape monotonous normality, “as swimmers into cleanness leaping.” They got four years mired in Flanders’ mud. In a 2016 referendum, Britons voted, 52 percent to 48 percent, for the exhilaration of emancipation from the European Union’s gray bureaucratic conformities. They ...

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• 19 January

  US case against Huawei is getting real

  

  An investigation by federal authorities into the possible theft of trade secrets by Huawei Technologies Co. could give even more weight to a US campaign against the Chinese company. Civil suits against Huawei, including a case where it was found liable by a jury in 2017 for the theft of T-Mobile US Inc. robotics technology, appear to be the springboard ...

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• 19 January

  Tech industry’s pain is only going to get worse

  

  That pain the global tech industry felt at the end of 2018 isn’t about to abate. The outlook from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. last week in Taipei paints a dire picture that will persist at least through the middle of this year. Those dark clouds I warned about in August haven’t gotten any lighter. At the time, I noted that ...

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• 19 January

  Global inflation is nowhere in sight

  Fearing that low unemployment would spur serious inflation, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark interest rate nine times since December 2015 and has started to shrink the size of its balance sheet assets in an effort to tighten credit. So imagine the surprise when the minutes of the Fed’s December monetary policy meeting stated that “many participants expressed the ...

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• 19 January

  Tesla’s car-sharing hopes could succeed in China

  

  When Elon Musk broke ground on Tesla Inc.’s Gigafactory in Shanghai earlier this month, he wasn’t just thinking about how many Teslas he’ll sell in China. He was thinking about how many he might be able to share. Musk isn’t alone. Global automobile manufacturers are scrambling to develop services that will allow Chinese car owners to rent out their vehicles ...

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• 19 January

  BlackRock needs to prove it can harvest economic benefits

  

  BlackRock Inc. proved last year that it can beat the market. What the world’s largest asset manager still needs to prove is that it won’t get tripped up by its own success. Fourth-quarter earnings were down and missed expectations, BlackRock announced last week, but that shouldn’t surprise anyone. BlackRock oversees about $6 trillion in assets, about half of which are ...

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