Google’s $1.7b warning for the Silicon Valley

If there was any lingering suspicion that the final months of Margrethe Vestager’s tenure as European Commissioner for Competition would fizzle out quietly, the last week’s announcement on Google has dispelled it. She’s imposed a remarkable 1.5 billion-euro ($1.7 billion) fine on the Alphabet Inc. division for its historical practice of forcing websites using its search bar to display only ...

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What Europe should do about the Brexit

Just when you thought the Brexit misadventure could get no worse, the speaker of the House of Commons stepped forward to turn it into a constitutional farce. What else can go wrong, one wonders, between now and March 29, the UK’s designated date to leave the EU? Prime Minister Theresa May met European Union’s other leaders on Friday and asked ...

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Dirty secrets of mining faces a climate reckoning

Can mining be green? That’s certainly the ambition of some of the biggest companies in the sector. Rio Tinto Group last year became the first major miner to stop digging up coal altogether. Glencore Plc, historically one of the commodity’s most vocal boosters, has promised to cap production at current levels. “We have a portfolio free of coal and oil ...

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Ericsson teaches Anil Ambani – and India – a lesson

Anil Ambani’s not going to jail after all, and Ericsson AB got its money. The Swedish company’s lawyers should take a bow. While the future of the Indian tycoon’s shrinking empire remains shrouded in uncertainty, at least questions over his near-term living arrangements got answered. Ambani thanked his “respected” elder brother, Mukesh, and sister-in-law, Nita, after avoiding a three-month prison ...

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Job cuts may stymie Germany’s big bank merger

Every day on my way to work, I pass a branch of Deutsche Bank AG and a Commerzbank AG outlet located almost exactly opposite each other on different sides of the street. One of them will probably close if the government-backed merger talks between the two lenders come to fruition – but I doubt the companies are up to making ...

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Ford plans $900mn bet on Michigan-made autos of future

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co plans to spend about $900 million and hire about 900 workers to build electric and self-driving vehicles in Michigan, while moving production of a small commercial van to Mexico from Europe. The moves, announced the same day Donald Trump visits an Ohio tank plant, follow the president’s sharp criticism of General Motors Co for idling a ...

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Facebook’s Oculus unveils its new PC-connected Rift S

Bloomberg Facebook Inc’s Oculus division unveiled a new version of the Rift virtual-reality headset, the Rift S, adding a higher-resolution display and a new design. The new model, which goes on sale for $399 sometime in the spring, plays the same games as the original Rift, but adds embedded sensors instead of external cameras for tracking. The previous model, which ...

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Nintendo, Sony fall after Google unveils gaming service

Bloomberg Sony Corp and Nintendo Co shares slid after Alphabet Inc’s Google outlined a major push into video games with a streaming service called Stadia. Nintendo dropped as much as 4.6 percent and Sony declined 4.5 percent, the biggest intraday drop in six weeks. Stadia lets developers put games on a streaming platform that will allow players to access the ...

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Trump escalates feud with Fed by picking Moore for board

Bloomberg It looks like a textbook example of political meddling with a central bank in an emerging market, except it’s happening in the US. President Donald Trump said he’s nominating former campaign adviser Stephen Moore to be a governor of the Federal Reserve — potentially putting a political loyalist in lockstep with Trump’s view on juicing the economy into the ...

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US banks tumble as bad news piles up

Bloomberg Big banks extended losses into a fourth day, as 10-year Treasury yields tumbled, the 3-month/10-year yield curve inverted for the first time since 2007, US manufacturing data missed expectations and Europe’s economic outlook darkened. The KBW Bank Index slid 4.5 percent, the most since December 4, to a session low after President Trump said he will nominate long-time supporter ...

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