Skip to content
(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. quietly sold an additional $2.2 billion of its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. as part of the Japanese conglomerate’s fund-raising effort to pay down debt and buy back its own shares.The deal, which includes a collar contract and call spread, is expected to be settled between May 2024 and June 2024. The details were disclosed on page 276 of SoftBank’s year-end financial filing released on June 25, but have not been previously reported. A SoftBank Group spokesman confirmed the details of the sale.This step is the latest in an unwinding of a relationship between the two companies that spans two decades. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son was an early backer of Jack Ma’s Alibaba and the Chinese e-commerce giant remains his most successful investment by far. In early 2000, Son invested $20 million into the then-unknown web portal connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers, a stake...
(Bloomberg) -- Oil fell on signs that the recovery in oil consumption may be starting to slow.Futures in New York fell below $41 a barrel after struggling to surpass their highs from June in recent days. Indian road fuel sales fell in the first half of July as localized virus lockdowns occurred in several cites, and the Chinese city of Urumqi locked down some areas amid fears of another outbreak in the country. American unemployment figures barely dropped last week, highlighting the risks to a broader economic recovery.Though demand concerns are returning in some of the world’s largest consuming regions, it remains a far from uniform picture. Japan’s fuel demand is just 4% lower than a year earlier, and there have been steady recoveries in nationwide consumption in the U.K. and the U.S.After rebounding rapidly from its nadir in April on supply cuts and returning demand, crude has traded in a...
China's financial regulators seized control of several insurers, trust firms and stock brokers linked to one of the country's most powerful oligarchs, in a devastating blow against corporate malfeasance and freewheeling capitalism while the stock market is in the midst of a runaway rally.Huaxia Life Insurance, Tian'an Property Insurance, Tian'an Life, Yi'an Property Insurance, New Times Trust and New China Trust were placed under state ward to "protect the rights of policy holders, customers and serve the public's interest," the China Banking and Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said in a statement. Separately, New Times Securities, Guosheng Securities and Guosheng Futures were placed under the government's management for a year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said.The coordinated seizures extend the break-up of Xiao Jianhua's Tomorrow Group, a sprawling empire with stakes in hundreds of publicly listed companies held through a labyrinthian network of entities, that began three years ago. The crackdown of...
China's financial regulators seized control of several insurers, trust firms and stock brokers linked to one of the country's most powerful oligarchs, in a devastating blow against corporate malfeasance and freewheeling capitalism while the stock market is in the midst of a runaway rally.Huaxia Life Insurance, Tian'an Property Insurance, Tian'an Life, Yi'an Property Insurance, New Times Trust and New China Trust were placed under state ward to "protect the rights of policy holders, customers and serve the public's interest," the China Banking and Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said in a statement. Separately, New Times Securities, Guosheng Securities and Guosheng Futures were placed under the government's management for a year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said.The coordinated seizures extend the break-up of Xiao Jianhua's Tomorrow Group, a sprawling empire with stakes in hundreds of publicly listed companies held through a labyrinthian network of entities, that began three years ago. The crackdown of...
Vaccine-focused biopharma Dynavax Technologies (DVAX) has announced a collaboration to develop a universal influenza (flu) vaccine with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.Mount Sinai’s work in this area is funded under a contract award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), as part of the Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Centers (CIVICs) program.The Mount Sinai CIVICs team will evaluate a novel approach they have developed called chimeric hemagglutinin (cHA) designed to protect against all strains of influenza in combination with Dynavax’s CpG 1018TM adjuvant.Adjuvants are added to a vaccine to boost the immune response to produce more antibodies and longer-lasting immunity, thus minimizing the dose of antigen needed. They can also enhance vaccine efficacy by helping to modify the immune response by particular types of immune system cells.The development program will support an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for Phase I clinical trials.There are no approved universal flu vaccines. The effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine ranges...
Daimler will stop building Mercedes-Benz sedans in the United States and Mexico as it seeks deeper cuts after posting a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss. The German automaker will halt output of its Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, leaving the plant producing sport utility vehicles (SUVs) only, it said. "Daimler pre-released better-than-consensus second-quarter numbers," Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois said in a note....
Undeniably, the novel coronavirus is one of the worst catastrophes in American history. And yet, I can't help but think that the pandemic made Zynga (NASDAQ:ZNGA) great again. Proponents of the mobile video gaming specialist will argue that Zynga stock was already great. However, shares are still down a good-sized discount from their all-time high. So, as Vice President Mike Pence might say, can ZNGA be made great again … again?Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com Looking at the situation from a bird's eye view, the evidence strongly points to a hearty, Trump country yee-haw. As the coronavirus started infecting Americans at a blistering rate, a few governors made the painful but critical decision to shut down their state's economies. Later, as New York became the global epicenter for Covid-19, most states had followed suit.Of course, this suited Zynga stock just fine. From its March doldrums, shares began rocketing toward low-earth orbit. Granted,...
