July, 2018

• 24 July

  Google parent Alphabet sees record highs despite EU fine

  

  Bloomberg Google is still raking in marketing dollars from advertisers, propelling the online search giant to another strong quarter in the face of costly regulatory trouble in Europe. The shares jumped as much as 6.1 percent in extended trading, putting them on course for a record. Parent company Alphabet Inc. reported second-quarter sales, minus partner payouts, of $26.24 billion during ...

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• 24 July

  Italy’s Illycaffe attracts interest from JAB, Nestle

  

  Bloomberg Italian coffee maker Illycaffe SpA has attracted interest from suitors including JAB Holding Co. and Nestle SA, but the family owners have so far rebuffed approaches, according to people familiar with the matter. JAB, which has built a coffee empire through a series of acquisitions, is interested in acquiring all of the Trieste-based coffee roaster, according to the people, ...

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• 24 July

  Facebook doubles down on London with space for 6,000 employees

  

  Bloomberg Facebook Inc. will double the amount of space it occupies in London as technology firms continue to expand in the UK. The new office buildings in the city’s King’s Cross district will have room for more than 6,000 people, compared with a target of 2,300 workers by the end of this year. Facebook’s statement did not say how many ...

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• 24 July

  Apollo to buy LifePoint in $2.52bn deal

  Bloomberg Apollo Global Management LLC will buy hospital chain LifePoint Health Inc. for $65 a share, expanding the private equity firm’s ambitions in rural health care. The deal values LifePoint at $2.52 billion, or $5.6 billion including debt and a minority interest, the firms said in a statement. The price is a 36 percent premium to where LifePoint shares closed ...

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• 24 July

  Boeing set for stellar quarter, its investors hungry for detail

  

  Bloomberg Boeing Co. investors can bank on the planemaker for another stellar quarter. Strong deliveries in the second quarter, several strategic deals and a stable cash flow has ensured big returns for Boeing shareholders over the past year, with the stock gaining nearly 67 percent, compared to a 14 percent bump for the rest of the market. While intensifying concerns ...

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• 24 July

  Walmart’s fintech partner helps break its payment cycle

  

  Bloomberg Walmart Inc.’s employees have adopted money-management tools from Even Responsible Finance Inc. at a faster pace than anticipated, prompting a fresh round of funding to expand the fintech startup. More than 200,000 Walmart employees in the US use Even’s app to manage their finances or access their wages early, the Oakland-based startup said, and almost half of that group ...

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• 24 July

  Lindt’s US expansion gets $200mn push

  

  Bloomberg Switzerland’s Lindt & Spruengli AG plans $200 million US investment offensive to further challenge Hershey Co. and Mars in that market. The maker of Lindor chocolate balls is expanding a plant in Stratham, New Hampshire, over the next four years, constructing high-tech production lines for premium chocolate, the company said. The site will eventually have more than 1 million ...

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• 24 July

  Toys ‘R’ Us workers face harsh reality in quest for severance

  

  Bloomberg Toys ‘R’ Us’s fired workers last week won the right to negotiate for severance money in bankruptcy court, in an unusual victory. They may end up getting nothing. Before much money can be paid to the retailer’s 33,000 former employees, senior lenders need to collect about $1 billion. For now, the staffers can try to tap a pool of ...

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• 24 July

  350mn diners fuel battle for China’s food delivery crown

  

  Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s food delivery platform Ele.me plans to spend $443 million this quarter trying to wrest customers from Meituan Dianping. Ele.me wants to command more than half of all food delivery transactions in China over the short- to medium-term, according to Chief Executive Officer Wang Lei, who took the reins after Alibaba acquired the startup this year. ...

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• 24 July

  End to Ambani’s telecom price war 185mn users away

  

  Bloomberg The bruising telecommunications price war unleashed by the entry of India’s richest man into the sector may continue for at least a year or as long as it takes Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. to nearly double its user base. Ambani’s telecom unit “will strive to double subscribers to 400 million before raising prices,” Kunal Agrawal, a Hong Kong-based analyst ...

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