Company news in brief

Disney hikes bid for Fox assets

Walt Disney Co raised its bid for the bulk of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's film and television assets to US$71.3 billion on Wednesday, sweetening its deal with cash as it looks to upend Comcast Corp's US$65 billion offer.

The new cash-or-stock deal may be attractive to Fox's largest shareholder, Rupert Murdoch, who owns 17% voting shares along with his family. The Murdochs face a large capital gains tax bill under Comcast's all-cash offer. Disney's previous offer was all stock.

Fox's board of directors said Disney's latest offer was “superior” to the proposal made by Comcast and would create “one of the greatest, most innovative companies in the world.”

-Nampa/Reuters





Samsung Note 9 leak drives rumours

Samsung is only expected to release its Galaxy Note 9 phablet in the third quarter of 2018, but phone specs have already been leaked online.

According to Samsung insider Ice Universe, the Note flagship will have similar screen dimensions to the previous version, but be slightly wider and thicker.

Fans can expect a minimum of 64GB on board storage and the smartphone could be powered by either a Snapdragon 845 or Exynos 9810 chipset, according to the Android Authority.

In keeping with previous versions, the stylus will likely be integrated into the smartphone's body, and be more sensitive to pressure.

-Fin24

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Basil Read applies for suspension of listing

South African construction firm Basil Read Holdings said on Wednesday it had applied to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for the voluntary suspension of the listing of its shares after a key unit started business rescue proceedings.

The cash-strapped company announced on Friday that Basil Read Limited, its wholly owned subsidiary which houses its construction unit, had started business rescue proceedings after it failed to secure bridge funding from lenders.

Its shares have plunged more than 90% from a high of 22 cents to close at 1 cents on Friday.

-Nampa/Reuters





Boeing says Export-Import Bank vital to US growth

Restoring the US Export-Import Bank's full lending powers is vital to the country's economic growth and to shrinking trade deficits, planemaker Boeing Co said on Wednesday after President Donald Trump nominated Kimberly Reed as the trade bank's president.

“Restoring the Export-Import Bank to full strength with a Board quorum is the best thing Washington can do right now to grow our economy through exports, shrink our trade deficits, and level the playing field so American workers can win,” Tim Keating, Boeing's executive vice president of government operations, said in a statement.

-Nampa/Reuters





US lawmakers want Google to reconsider links to Huawei

Some Republican and Democratic US lawmakers asked Alphabet Inc's Google on Wednesday to reconsider its work with Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, which they described as a security threat.

In a letter to Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, the lawmakers said Google recently decided not to renew “Project Maven,” an artificial intelligence research partnership with the US Department of Defense.

“While we regret that Google did not want to continue a long and fruitful tradition of collaboration between the military and technology companies, we are even more disappointed that Google apparently is more willing to support the Chinese Communist Party than the US military,” they wrote.

-Nampa/Reuters