January, 2017

• 26 January

  UK Brexit boom sees economy plagued by ‘old concerns’

  

    Bloomberg The UK economy is maintaining its stellar performance since the Brexit vote, but the reasons may be cause for concern. Growth beat expectations again in the fourth quarter, coming in at 0.6 percent, but the make-up of the performance hints at ongoing weak links. The expansion is still being almost entirely driven by services and consumer spending, continuing ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  Google parts with lobbyist amid Trump-led power shift

  

    Bloomberg After at least 12 years together, Alphabet Inc., the parent of Google, won’t be represented by one of Washington’s most prominent lobbying groups, a firm with long-standing ties to the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton. The Podesta Group — whose chairman, Tony Podesta, is a major Democratic fundraiser and the brother of Clinton’s former campaign manager — is ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  Apple sues chipmaker Qualcomm in China over technology fees

  

    AP Apple Inc. has filed suit in China challenging Qualcomm Inc.’s fees for technology used in smartphones two years after Chinese regulators fined the chipmaker for its licensing practices. Two lawsuits filed by the iPhone maker accuse Qualcomm of abusing its control over essential technology to charge excessive licensing fees, a Beijing court said on its microblog. It said ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  Coders who ease machine-human communication in high demand

    Bloomberg Next time you’re searching for a new job, look to Siri for inspiration. Coders who can help machines communicate with people are in high demand. Software engineers who program computers to understand human speech saw US demand for their labor grow faster than workers with any other skill, according to data from last quarter compiled by Upwork, a ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  FB takes aim at fake news with new ‘trending’ formula

  

    SAN FRANCISCO / AP Facebook is updating its “trending” feature that highlights hot topics on its social networking site, part of its effort to root out the kind of fake news stories that critics contend helped Donald Trump become president. With the changes announced, Facebook’s trending list will consist of topics being covered by several publishers. Before, it focused ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  Johnson & Johnson seals $30 billion Actelion deal

  

    Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson agreed to buy Actelion Ltd. for $30 billion and spin off the Swiss drugmaker’s research and development operations, clinching its largest deal ever to become a leader in medicines for a rare type of high blood pressure. J&J, already the world’s biggest maker of health-care products, is fulfilling its goal of gaining a new drug ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  Uber rival taps investors promising profits

  

    Bloomberg To convince investors to finance a pan-European war against Uber Technologies Inc., a French ride-hailing app 50 times smaller has a one-word pitch: profit. Chauffeur-Prive is near closing a 50-million-euro ($53 million) fundraising round to expand out of Paris into the rest of Europe, with the promise it can extend a five-year streak of growth while turning a ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  Fiat Chrysler sees 2017 debt almost halving amid cash push

  

    Bloomberg Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV expects debt to fall by at least 45 percent this year as the Italian-American carmaker enters the final stretch of a plan to turn liabilities into cash by selling more expensive autos. The stock jumped. Net industrial debt will narrow to less than 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) this year from 4.6 billion euros ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  Apple’s IPhone sales set to rebound, but for how long?

  

    Bloomberg Apple Inc. results next week will likely show iPhone sales growing again, bucking a year of declines. That’s the good news. The bad news: The average selling price of the handsets in the key holiday quarter ending in late December may show customers settling for older iPhone 6S models, rather than the iPhone 7, introduced in September, according ...

  Read More »
• 26 January

  India’s biggest solar project stalls as state balks at cost

  

    Bloomberg India’s biggest solar power project has stalled as the state which sought bids from generators says it can’t buy the energy at prices it had agreed upon. Winning developers in India’s Jharkhand state are still waiting to sign power purchase agreements almost a year after the tender. In March, Jharkhand awarded contracts to build 1.2 gigawatts of solar. ...

  Read More »