Company news in brief
Antitrust watchdog raids Glencore business
India's antitrust watchdog raided units of global commodities trader Glencore and two other firms in Mumbai on Saturday in an inquiry into alleged collusion on the price of pulses, four sources with knowledge of the raids told Reuters.
More than 25 antitrust officials carried out the raids at the offices of local units of Glencore and Africa's Export Trading Group, and India's Edelweiss group which previously had a commodities business, two government sources told Reuters.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has been investigating allegations that the companies formed a cartel to discuss the pricing of pulses while importing and selling them in the Indian market at higher prices in 2015 and 2016, when India faced an acute shortage, the sources said.
Two years of drought pushed up prices of pulses such as chickpeas and black grams, which are a staple of Indian cuisine, in 2015 and forced New Delhi to offer duty-free imports, encouraging foreign and Indian traders who imported pulses to sell locally.
The investigation will also assess whether the companies have continued their alleged collusion even after the prices of pulses stabilised in recent years, the source said. – Nampa/Reuters
Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank go public on merger talks
Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank confirmed on Sunday they were in talks about a merger, prompting labour union concerns about possible job losses and questions from analysts about the merits of a combination.
Christian Sewing, Deutsche Bank's chief executive, said many factors could still prevent a merger and a Deutsche spokesman said the talks were expected to last some time. Commerzbank described the outcome as open.
However, formal disclosure of talks appeared to boost the chances of concluding a deal first floated in 2016 before the banks opted to focus on restructuring.
The German government has pushed for a combination given concerns about the health of Deutsche, which has struggled to generate sustainable profits since the 2008 financial crisis.
A merged bank would likely be the third largest in Europe after HSBC and BNP Paribas, with roughly 1.8 trillion euros (US$2.04 trillion) in assets, such as loans and investments, and a market value of about 25 billion euros. – Nampa/Reuters
Air Canada, United Airlines say groundings to hurt business
Air Canada and United Airlines on Friday became the first major carriers in North America to warn of negative impacts on business due to the grounding of Boeing Co's 737 MAX planes.
Air Canada suspended its 2019 financial forecasts, saying it continued to adapt a contingency plan to address the current uncertainty surrounding the new jets.
United Airlines, the No. 3 US carrier, said it would see an adverse effect on its operations if the jets remained grounded heading into the peak summer travel season.
Montreal-based Air Canada has said it operated seventy-five 737 MAX flights daily out of a total schedule of approximately 1 600 flights system-wide.
The Canadian carrier would face the costs of re-booking passengers after the planes were grounded, and other costs from not having scheduled access to the more efficient MAX, said AltaCorp analyst Chris Murray. – Nampa/Reuters
Apple infringed three Qualcomm patents
Mobile phone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc on Friday won a legal victory against iPhone maker Apple Inc, with a jury in federal court in San Diego finding that Apple owes Qualcomm about US$31 million for infringing three of its patents.
Qualcomm last year sued Apple alleging it had violated patents related to helping mobile phones get better battery life. During an eight-day trial, Qualcomm asked the jury to award it unpaid patent royalties of up to US$1.41 per iPhone that violated the patents.
The US$31 million penalty is small change for Apple, the second most valuable US company after Microsoft Corp, with a market value of US$866 billion and annual revenue totalling hundreds of billions of US dollars. But the setting of a per-phone royalty rate for Qualcomm's technology gives the chip supplier a fresh line of attack in its two-year old legal battle with Apple.
The biggest case, filed by Apple in early 2017, begins in April. Apple has sought to dismantle what it calls Qualcomm's illegal business model of both licensing patents and selling chips to phone makers. Qualcomm has accused Apple of using its technology without paying.
In a statement, Apple said it was disappointed with the outcome. – Nampa/Reuters
Cash, demand concerns overshadow Tesla's SUV launch
Shares of Tesla Inc fell nearly 5% on Friday, as investors wondered if its unveiling of an electric sports utility vehicle would add to pressure on cash flow, while analysts worried the carmaker was not addressing slowing demand for other models.
Tesla, which introduced a cheap US$35 000 version of its Model 3 sedan last month and is struggling to convince backers its business model works, on Thursday launched the "Model Y" compact SUV - built on the same platform as the Model 3.
The launch of the Model Y also reignited worries that Tesla would need to raise cash sooner than later.
Tesla said it would debut a long-range Model Y next year with a range of 482 km, priced at US$47 000, as well as a standard version, priced at US$39 000, in 2021.
Tesla has been cutting jobs and closing stores in a bid to make profits and expects a loss in the first quarter. – Nampa/Reuters
India's antitrust watchdog raided units of global commodities trader Glencore and two other firms in Mumbai on Saturday in an inquiry into alleged collusion on the price of pulses, four sources with knowledge of the raids told Reuters.
More than 25 antitrust officials carried out the raids at the offices of local units of Glencore and Africa's Export Trading Group, and India's Edelweiss group which previously had a commodities business, two government sources told Reuters.
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has been investigating allegations that the companies formed a cartel to discuss the pricing of pulses while importing and selling them in the Indian market at higher prices in 2015 and 2016, when India faced an acute shortage, the sources said.
Two years of drought pushed up prices of pulses such as chickpeas and black grams, which are a staple of Indian cuisine, in 2015 and forced New Delhi to offer duty-free imports, encouraging foreign and Indian traders who imported pulses to sell locally.
The investigation will also assess whether the companies have continued their alleged collusion even after the prices of pulses stabilised in recent years, the source said. – Nampa/Reuters
Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank go public on merger talks
Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank confirmed on Sunday they were in talks about a merger, prompting labour union concerns about possible job losses and questions from analysts about the merits of a combination.
Christian Sewing, Deutsche Bank's chief executive, said many factors could still prevent a merger and a Deutsche spokesman said the talks were expected to last some time. Commerzbank described the outcome as open.
However, formal disclosure of talks appeared to boost the chances of concluding a deal first floated in 2016 before the banks opted to focus on restructuring.
The German government has pushed for a combination given concerns about the health of Deutsche, which has struggled to generate sustainable profits since the 2008 financial crisis.
A merged bank would likely be the third largest in Europe after HSBC and BNP Paribas, with roughly 1.8 trillion euros (US$2.04 trillion) in assets, such as loans and investments, and a market value of about 25 billion euros. – Nampa/Reuters
Air Canada, United Airlines say groundings to hurt business
Air Canada and United Airlines on Friday became the first major carriers in North America to warn of negative impacts on business due to the grounding of Boeing Co's 737 MAX planes.
Air Canada suspended its 2019 financial forecasts, saying it continued to adapt a contingency plan to address the current uncertainty surrounding the new jets.
United Airlines, the No. 3 US carrier, said it would see an adverse effect on its operations if the jets remained grounded heading into the peak summer travel season.
Montreal-based Air Canada has said it operated seventy-five 737 MAX flights daily out of a total schedule of approximately 1 600 flights system-wide.
The Canadian carrier would face the costs of re-booking passengers after the planes were grounded, and other costs from not having scheduled access to the more efficient MAX, said AltaCorp analyst Chris Murray. – Nampa/Reuters
Apple infringed three Qualcomm patents
Mobile phone chip supplier Qualcomm Inc on Friday won a legal victory against iPhone maker Apple Inc, with a jury in federal court in San Diego finding that Apple owes Qualcomm about US$31 million for infringing three of its patents.
Qualcomm last year sued Apple alleging it had violated patents related to helping mobile phones get better battery life. During an eight-day trial, Qualcomm asked the jury to award it unpaid patent royalties of up to US$1.41 per iPhone that violated the patents.
The US$31 million penalty is small change for Apple, the second most valuable US company after Microsoft Corp, with a market value of US$866 billion and annual revenue totalling hundreds of billions of US dollars. But the setting of a per-phone royalty rate for Qualcomm's technology gives the chip supplier a fresh line of attack in its two-year old legal battle with Apple.
The biggest case, filed by Apple in early 2017, begins in April. Apple has sought to dismantle what it calls Qualcomm's illegal business model of both licensing patents and selling chips to phone makers. Qualcomm has accused Apple of using its technology without paying.
In a statement, Apple said it was disappointed with the outcome. – Nampa/Reuters
Cash, demand concerns overshadow Tesla's SUV launch
Shares of Tesla Inc fell nearly 5% on Friday, as investors wondered if its unveiling of an electric sports utility vehicle would add to pressure on cash flow, while analysts worried the carmaker was not addressing slowing demand for other models.
Tesla, which introduced a cheap US$35 000 version of its Model 3 sedan last month and is struggling to convince backers its business model works, on Thursday launched the "Model Y" compact SUV - built on the same platform as the Model 3.
The launch of the Model Y also reignited worries that Tesla would need to raise cash sooner than later.
Tesla said it would debut a long-range Model Y next year with a range of 482 km, priced at US$47 000, as well as a standard version, priced at US$39 000, in 2021.
Tesla has been cutting jobs and closing stores in a bid to make profits and expects a loss in the first quarter. – Nampa/Reuters
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