Shares in iQIYI Inc. (IQ) jumped 35% in pre-market trading amid a report that China’s online gaming company Tencent Holdings Ltd. (TCEHY) is seeking to become the largest shareholder in the video streaming company.The stock leaped to $25.78 after Reuters reported that Tencent approached iQIYI’s 56.2% owner Baidu Inc. (BIDU) to buy a stake of as-yet undetermined size. Shares in Baidu rose 7.2% to $125.25 in early trading.According to the report, Tencent wants to cut costs and counter competition in a sector boosted by stay-at-home coronavirus policies.“A tie-up would improve their bargaining power when producing and purchasing content, and lower marketing costs that would otherwise be spent on grabbing users from each other,” according to a person quoted in the Reuters report.Plans are at an early stage and subject to change. The potential deal would bring together two of China’s biggest media networks, with each boasting over 110 million paid subscribers...
Norwegian Air and SAS are adding more flights to their schedules from July onwards as demand begins to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic, the two Nordic carriers said on Tuesday. SAS will use 40 of its aircraft in July, up from 30 in June, as it adds flights from the Nordics to Spain, Italy and Portugal among others. "As restrictions and inbound travel rules are relaxed, we are seeing a rise in demand for travel," SAS said in a statement....
A cheap and widely-used steroid called dexamethasone has become the first drug shown to be able to save the lives of COVID-19 patients in what scientists said is a "major breakthrough" in the coronavirus pandemic. Trial results announced on Tuesday showed dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis, reduced death rates by around a third among the most severely ill COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital. The preliminary results, which have not been peer-reviewed, suggest the drug should immediately become standard care in patients with severe cases of the pandemic disease, said the researchers who led the trials....
