Bain, Advent prepare new bid for German light-maker

Bloomberg Bain Capital and Advent International are preparing a fresh bid for German lighting maker Osram Licht AG, ratcheting up a bidding war with Austrian sensor maker AMS AG, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The two buyout firms planneed to announce their intention to submit a new proposal as soon as Wednesday, with a formal bid coming ...

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Google contractors vote to join United Steelworkers’ union

Bloomberg Contract workers for Google in Pittsburgh voted to join the United Steelworkers, according to the union. The result was 49 votes for and 24 against, said Maria Somma, the organising director for the union. This is one of the first victories for organised labour since waves of employee activism began consuming the technology giant last year. The union hopes ...

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The odd couple: Donald Trump and Jay Powell

If ever there was a case of political miscalculation, it’s the collapsing relationship between President Trump and the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, Jerome (‘Jay’) Powell. Trump seems to have believed that he could easily manipulate Powell into embracing an aggressively easy monetary policy whose main objective was Trump’s re-election. For his part, Powell seems to have believed that, ...

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Banks are still clubs run by the boys

So divergent have their fortunes been since the financial crisis, European banks tend to trail their Wall Street peers on most of the metrics investors care about. Gender diversity at the top might be the next lagging indicator. There are rare bright spots in Europe. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc promoted Alison Rose to chief executive officer, the first ...

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No, US retailer Walmart is not suddenly woke

It has been a busy month at Walmart Inc. First, America’s largest retailer said it would stop sales of some kinds of ammunition in the wake of a shooting at one of its stores in El Paso, Texas. Then the company said it would cease selling e-cigarettes as a mysterious lung illness has raised new concerns about the safety of ...

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What Apple can learn from Starbucks on EU taxes

The Luxembourg court decisions on Starbucks Corp.’s antitrust tax case – which was a loss for the European Union — and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s – which was a win – offer important clues to how a much bigger tax showdown between Brussels and Apple Inc. might play out. While there’s something for critics and defenders of the EU 50-50 ...

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Modi government sends up monetary helicopters

India is making a second big fiscal gamble. The first – a switch from sales to consumption taxes – has failed to achieve revenue targets. The government, which two months ago was trying in desperation to tax everything that moved, has suddenly changed tack and is slashing levies on company profits. Will this revive animal spirits and sputtering GDP growth, ...

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Europe’s passive fund revolution

The UK Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) is the nation’s biggest steward of public sector retirement savings by membership, responsible for nest eggs almost 6 million members worth 275 billion pounds. So the revelation that it’s under pressure from the government to shift more of its money into passive products should be a wake-up call to a stock-picking industry still ...

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SoftBank’s eyes wide shut just won’t work anymore

They built him up. And now they want to bring him down. SoftBank Group Corp.’s sudden turn against WeWork CEO Adam Neumann highlights how the Japanese conglomerate has wielded far more dollars than sense in its investment strategy. Officials tied to SoftBank want Neumann to step down as CEO, according to reports over the weekend. SoftBank and its Vision Fund ...

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US equity futures decline, Europe stocks dip; oil falls

Bloomberg US equity-index futures dipped while stocks slumped in Europe and Asia as investors weighed the deepening political gridlock in Washington against prospects for reduced trade tension between America and China. The dollar advanced and oil fell. Contracts for all three main equity gauges signalled more declines at the New York open as traders grappled with the impeachment investigation into ...

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