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Bloomberg Lee Seung-gun’s parents told him to get his sanity checked when he quit his secure job as a dentist with the hospital arm of Samsung Group to found a mobile apps startup. Seven years and eight failed apps later, the founder of Viva Republica has a bona fide hit with payments service Toss and its 8 million registered users ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump has ordered a rescue of the nation’s struggling coal and nuclear power industries, but that doesn’t mean utilities are reconsidering the shutdown of unprofitable plants. Many power generators contacted said Trump’s June 1 announcement hasn’t altered their plans to retire old units even as the administration dangles the prospect of using emergency powers to force grid ...

Bloomberg Audi CEO Rupert Stadler was arrested in Munich in connection with the diesel-cheating scandal, making him the highest-profile target in the probe that’s engulfed the carmaker and parent Volkswagen for almost three years. Munich prosecutors investigating Audi’s role in the 2015 scandal confirmed they arrested Stadler, 55, in the Bavarian capital because of risk he may tamper with evidence, ...

Bloomberg CYBG Plc agreed to buy Virgin Money Holdings UK Plc for about 1.7 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) in an all-stock transaction, creating a bank with about six million customers to challenge Britain’s largest lenders. The purchase of the Richard Branson-backed bank gives consumer and business lender CYBG greater scale, potential cost savings and access to the firm’s presence on ...

Bloomberg The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Apple Inc.’s bid to kill an antitrust lawsuit over the market for iPhone apps in a case that could shield e-commerce companies from consumer claims over high commissions. The lawsuit accuses Apple of monopolising the app market so it can charge excessive commissions of 30 percent. Apple, backed by the Trump administration, ...

Bloomberg LaSalle Hotel Properties picked Blackstone Group LP as its preferred suitor, thwarting months of efforts by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust to buy the luxury-hotel owner, most recently for more than $4 billion. The Blackstone transaction values the company at $4.8 billion, LaSalle said on Monday in a statement. LaSalle’s board deemed a June 11 offer from Pebblebrook “substantially similar” to ...

Bloomberg The first punches have been thrown in a potential trade war and now Xi Jinping is poised to match Donald Trump with a tit for tat response. The next flurry of jabs may be imminent. In his announcement of tariffs on Chinese goods on June 16, Trump vowed additional duties if China retaliated — which Beijing immediately did. Details ...

Bloomberg Ivan Duque, a 41-year-old lawyer and former senator who wants to modify parts of a peace process and cut corporate taxes, will be Colombia’s next president following a decisive election victory on June 17. Duque, who spent half his adult life in Washington, is the protege of former President Alvaro Uribe, a polarising security hard-liner. Whether he’ll be able ...

Bloomberg In their first two weeks in power, Italy’s populist leaders sparked a dispute with France over immigration and threatened to scupper a landmark EU trade pact with Canada. It’s hardly the way to make friends with European partners in key deciding positions when Italy seeks approval for the big-spending budget plan it will submit to Brussels in four months. ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel accepted a two-week deadline to win agreement on tougher migration policy, a concession to her Bavarian coalition partner that eases an immediate standoff without removing the threat of further government tension down the road. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who heads Bavaria’s Christian Social Union party, insists the chancellor reach a deal by the end of June ...