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  Bloomberg Alcon, the eye-care business that Novartis AG acquired for more than $50 billion, is now weighing on Europe’s second-largest drugmaker. After more than a year of efforts to turn around the business, the Swiss company said it was considering all options for the embattled division, including a spinoff or initial public offering. Profit from the business plummeted 31 ...

  Bloomberg Six months ago, Lyft Inc. made a big push into corporate travel, building a team of several dozen employees to pitch banks, consulting firms and other companies on its ride-hailing services. This month, more than a dozen of those employees were dismissed or reassigned, part of a change in direction for the company’s nascent sales efforts. David Baga, ...

  Bloomberg A closely-watched survey of business confidence in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, dropped in January as managers worried about the uncertainty associated with the advent of Donald Trump’s presidency. The Ifo index released on Wednesday fell to 109.8 points in January from 111 points in December, as companies’ greater satisfaction with their current situation was offset by a drop ...

  Bloomberg Intel Corp, the biggest maker of semiconductors, predicted first-quarter sales that will meet analysts’ estimates on improvements in the personal computer market and continued growth in orders from data center owners. Revenue will be $14.8 billion, plus or minus $500 million, the Santa Clara, California-based company said Thursday in a statement. Analysts had projected $14.5 billion, the average ...

  “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth.” — President Donald Trump, January 20. Washington is not a swamp. Since at least the days of Jimmy Carter, presidential politicians have run against Washington, ...

  Russia was one of the best trades of 2016 by a country mile. A strengthening ruble supercharged foreign interest in domestic Russian government bonds, pushing yields down to around 8 percent from 12 percent in mid-2015. Contrary to appearances, there’s still some room to run. There’s a realistic chance that inflation will cool to the Russian central bank’s 4 ...

  Not surprisingly for a president whose slogan is “America First,” Donald Trump has expressed deep skepticism about the United Nations. Nevertheless, his appointment of a skilled and popular politician as the new US permanent representative stands to help make the UN a more effective forum for advancing US interests. It will be South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s job to ...

  British Prime Minister Theresa May met US President Donald Trump on Friday to garner support as UK is poised to leave European Union. May fared well in meeting with Trump, who promised her what the former demanded. She returns with Trump’s promise to seek an early trade deal with Britain once it leaves the European Union, a commitment from ...

  Just a few years ago, many were proclaiming the decline of behavioural economics. In 2009, the well-known game theorist David Levine delivered a lecture called “Is Behavioural Economics Doomed?,” in which he casts doubt on some prominent behavioural theories. In a few fields, such as finance, behavioural ideas have gone mainstream; in others, like game theory, interest is slowly ...

  Ebay Inc. has managed to right the ship. Now it’s time to get sailing.Shares in the e-commerce company rose 9 percent in after-hours trading as investors cheered a fourth-consecutive quarter of sales increases. Maintaining a full year of gains helped quiet concerns that without PayPal Holdings Inc., the subsidiary it split from in 2015, eBay would be left for ...