Company news in brief

EU approves Disney buy from Fox

Walt Disney’s US$71.3-billion offer to buy Twenty-First Century Fox Inc’s entertainment assets won approval from the European Commission on Tuesday, subject to Disney selling interests in factual TV channels in Europe.

The EU competition regulator said in a statement that Disney had committed to divest its interests in channels including History and Lifetime in the European Economic Area (EEA) to avoid harming competition following its purchase from Fox.

“The decision is conditional on full compliance with commitments offered by Disney,” the Commission said.

The channels it must end its interest in are History, H2, Crime & Investigation, Blaze and Lifetime channels — currently controlled by A+E Television Networks, a joint venture between Disney and Hearst. HRSTV.UL

Disney secured approval from the US Justice Department for the deal in June on condition after agreeing to sell Fox’s 22 regional sports networks.

The deal would expand Disney’s unrivalled portfolio of some of the world’s most popular characters, uniting Mickey Mouse, Luke Skywalker and Marvel superheroes with Fox’s X-Men, “Avatar” and “The Simpsons” franchises.

-Nampa/Reuters

Nissan signs deal to build assembly plant in Ghana

Japanese automaker Nissan signed a preliminary deal with Ghana on Tuesday to set up an assembly plant in the West African country, company officials and the government said.

Nissan is the biggest car seller in Ghana with a 32% market share and the company plans to make the country its sales hub in West Africa. It already has a plant in Nigeria.

“We see Ghana as the gateway to West Africa... we will grow our business presence in the region and it’s for the long term,” Mike Whitfield, Nissan’s managing director for Africa, told reporters after signing a memorandum of understanding with Ghana’s trade ministry.

He did not provide further details, saying only that the company’s plans would hinge on a national auto policy that the government is expected to launch by the end of the year.

-Nampa/Reuters

Toymaker Lego wins court case against Chinese copycats

Lego has won another case against imitators in China where copies of its colorful plastic toy bricks and figures have been a recurrent problem, the Danish toymaker said on Monday.

In a landmark case last year Lego for the first time succeeded in a copyright competition case in China, where it seeks a bigger slice of a US$31 billion toys and games market.

“We believe these decisions are well-founded in the facts and the law, and clearly demonstrate the continued efforts of Chinese authorities to protect intellectual property,” Lego chief executive Niels B. Christiansen said in a statement.

The Guangzhou Yuexiu District Court ruled that four companies had “infringed multiple copyrights of the LEGO Group and conducted acts of unfair competition by producing and distributing LEPIN building sets”, Lego said.

The court ordered that the companies immediately ceased “producing, selling, exhibiting or in any way promoting the infringing products,” it said.

How Apple is losing its grip on India

Software engineer Samee Alam was ready to take the big leap and buy an iPhone in this week’s Diwali festival sales, but at the last minute he opted for cheaper Chinese competitor OnePlus instead.

Alam, 27, spends hours on his phone watching shows, surfing and shopping, making him the perfect target for Apple Inc as it strives to raise sales among India’s 1.3 billion consumers.

But in a country where the average per capita income is around US$2 000 a year, even the cheapest of this year’s new iPhones, the XR at 76,900 rupees ($1,058), costs twice as much as many of the alternatives.

Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research says that iPhone sales are falling as a result. From three million phones in 2017, sales may sink to two million this year, according to their estimate, the first decline in four years.

More than half of those sales will come from cheaper older models, and the lack of progress in India was among problems cited by Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook when he gave a disappointing holiday outlook last week.

Even in the premium segment, smartphones that cost more than US$400, Apple lagged Samsung and China’s OnePlus in the third quarter.

-Nampa/Reuters

Thomson Reuters eyes 'substantive' purchases

Thomson Reuters Corp is looking to make “substantive” acquisitions to boost its legal and tax units after selling a majority stake in its financial terminal business, chief executive Jim Smith said on Tuesday.

Smith’s comments, following better-than-expected third-quarter profit announced earlier in the day, sent Thomson Reuters shares up 4.5% to an 18-year high.

The news and information provider has set aside US$2 billion for deals, Smith told Reuters in an interview, after raising US$17 billion from selling 55 percent of its Financial & Risk (F&R) unit to private equity firm Blackstone Group LP (BX.N).

“We are interested in bigger, more substantive deals,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t expect a string of small, bolt-on acquisitions. We’d rather spend that US$2 billion on a handful of deals rather than spread across a couple of dozen.”

Thomson Reuters could spend more than US$2 billion if it found the right purchase, Smith told analysts on a conference call after reporting quarterly earnings.

-Nmapa/Reuters