Company news in brief
Aspen to invest in anaesthetics
South African drug maker Aspen Pharmacare will invest an additional 3.4 billion rand (US$231 million) at its Port Elizabeth plant, it said on Friday at an investment summit in Johannesburg.
The investment will be used to manufacture sterile anaesthetics, Aspen’s senior executive Stavros Nicolaou said at the summit.
-Nampa/Reuters
IBM to acquire Red Hat
IBM Corp said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire US software company Red Hat Inc for US$34 billion, including debt, as it seeks to diversify its technology hardware and consulting business into higher-margin products and services.
The transaction is by far IBM’s biggest acquisition. It underscores IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty’s efforts to expand the company’s subscription-based software offerings, as it faces slowing software sales and waning demand for mainframe servers.
IBM, which has a market capitalization of US$114 billion, will pay US$190 per share in cash for Red Hat, a 63% premium to Friday’s closing share price.
Founded in 1993, Red Hat specializes in Linux operating systems, the most popular type of open-source software, which was developed as an alternative to proprietary software made by Microsoft Corp.
Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Hat charges fees to its corporate customers for custom features, maintenance and technical support, offering IBM a lucrative source of subscription revenue.
-Nmapa/Reuters
Microsoft overtakes Amazon as second most valuable
Microsoft Corp regained its spot as the second most valuable US company on Friday after a disappointing quarterly report from Amazon.com wiped US$65 billion off the online retailer’s market capitalization.
Apple Inc tops the list at over US$1 trillion after crossing that threshold in September. Microsoft’s market capitalization was Wall Street’s highest in late 1998 through early 2000 before the dot-com bubble burst.
Amazon’s shares dropped 7%, the most in nearly three years after its holiday season sales outlook missed targets, fanning concerns that Wall Street’s tech darlings are finally starting to face stronger competition.
Microsoft fell a more modest 1.1% in a broad technology sell-off that was also driven by a weaker-than-expected report from Google-parent Alphabet Inc , leaving the Nasdaq composite index down 1.9% late Friday afternoon.
-Nampa/Reuters
Brazil leaves fate of Boeing-Embraer deal to next president
Brazil will leave a decision on whether to approve the sale of a controlling stake in planemaker Embraer SA’s commercial jet business to Boeing Co to the next government, defense minister Joaquim Silva e Luna told Reuters on Friday.
That’s a reversal from Luna’s remarks in August, when he said that current President Michel Temer’s administration would reach a decision after elections conclude this Sunday but before the January transition to the next government.
Embraer and Boeing agreed in July to the deal, but Brazil’s government, which owns a special class of stock in the planemaker that allows it to veto significant business decisions, has yet to sign off on it.
-Nampa/Reuters
Fraud office denied permission to charge Barclays
A High Court judge has denied a Serious Fraud Office application to charge Barclays over its 2008 capital raising, potentially ending the biggest remaining legal headache facing the British bank over its conduct during the financial crisis.
A British court dismissed the charges against the bank last May in a decision that the SFO, which prosecutes financial crimes, said it would seek to reverse by applying to the High Court to reinstate them.
“The High Court has today denied the SFO’s application to reinstate in respect of all of the charges. As a result, all of the charges remain dismissed,” Barclays said in a statement.
The SFO said on Friday it could not comment on the decision, citing reporting restrictions on other cases related to the 2008 fundraising which are set to continue.
Barclays denied the SFO’s allegation that a US$3 billion loan it made to Qatar in November 2008 was connected with a Qatari investment in the British bank which ultimately helped it avoid a British government rescue during the financial crisis.
-Nampa/Reuters
South African drug maker Aspen Pharmacare will invest an additional 3.4 billion rand (US$231 million) at its Port Elizabeth plant, it said on Friday at an investment summit in Johannesburg.
The investment will be used to manufacture sterile anaesthetics, Aspen’s senior executive Stavros Nicolaou said at the summit.
-Nampa/Reuters
IBM to acquire Red Hat
IBM Corp said on Sunday it had agreed to acquire US software company Red Hat Inc for US$34 billion, including debt, as it seeks to diversify its technology hardware and consulting business into higher-margin products and services.
The transaction is by far IBM’s biggest acquisition. It underscores IBM Chief Executive Ginni Rometty’s efforts to expand the company’s subscription-based software offerings, as it faces slowing software sales and waning demand for mainframe servers.
IBM, which has a market capitalization of US$114 billion, will pay US$190 per share in cash for Red Hat, a 63% premium to Friday’s closing share price.
Founded in 1993, Red Hat specializes in Linux operating systems, the most popular type of open-source software, which was developed as an alternative to proprietary software made by Microsoft Corp.
Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Hat charges fees to its corporate customers for custom features, maintenance and technical support, offering IBM a lucrative source of subscription revenue.
-Nmapa/Reuters
Microsoft overtakes Amazon as second most valuable
Microsoft Corp regained its spot as the second most valuable US company on Friday after a disappointing quarterly report from Amazon.com wiped US$65 billion off the online retailer’s market capitalization.
Apple Inc tops the list at over US$1 trillion after crossing that threshold in September. Microsoft’s market capitalization was Wall Street’s highest in late 1998 through early 2000 before the dot-com bubble burst.
Amazon’s shares dropped 7%, the most in nearly three years after its holiday season sales outlook missed targets, fanning concerns that Wall Street’s tech darlings are finally starting to face stronger competition.
Microsoft fell a more modest 1.1% in a broad technology sell-off that was also driven by a weaker-than-expected report from Google-parent Alphabet Inc , leaving the Nasdaq composite index down 1.9% late Friday afternoon.
-Nampa/Reuters
Brazil leaves fate of Boeing-Embraer deal to next president
Brazil will leave a decision on whether to approve the sale of a controlling stake in planemaker Embraer SA’s commercial jet business to Boeing Co to the next government, defense minister Joaquim Silva e Luna told Reuters on Friday.
That’s a reversal from Luna’s remarks in August, when he said that current President Michel Temer’s administration would reach a decision after elections conclude this Sunday but before the January transition to the next government.
Embraer and Boeing agreed in July to the deal, but Brazil’s government, which owns a special class of stock in the planemaker that allows it to veto significant business decisions, has yet to sign off on it.
-Nampa/Reuters
Fraud office denied permission to charge Barclays
A High Court judge has denied a Serious Fraud Office application to charge Barclays over its 2008 capital raising, potentially ending the biggest remaining legal headache facing the British bank over its conduct during the financial crisis.
A British court dismissed the charges against the bank last May in a decision that the SFO, which prosecutes financial crimes, said it would seek to reverse by applying to the High Court to reinstate them.
“The High Court has today denied the SFO’s application to reinstate in respect of all of the charges. As a result, all of the charges remain dismissed,” Barclays said in a statement.
The SFO said on Friday it could not comment on the decision, citing reporting restrictions on other cases related to the 2008 fundraising which are set to continue.
Barclays denied the SFO’s allegation that a US$3 billion loan it made to Qatar in November 2008 was connected with a Qatari investment in the British bank which ultimately helped it avoid a British government rescue during the financial crisis.
-Nampa/Reuters
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