Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) Messenger "Rooms," a joinable group video call feature usable by even non-Facebook members, was launched on Friday.What Happened Messenger Rooms supports video calls that can be used by up to 50 users with no time limit and will rival Zoom Video Communications Inc.'s (NASDAQ: ZM) that also supports large number of users. The company is rolling out Messenger Rooms in some countries this week and will be available in the United States and the rest of the world over the coming weeks.Why It Matters According to Facebook, between Messenger and WhatsApp, there are more than 700 million account holders that participate in video and voice calls each day. The number of calls has more than doubled in many countries and even increased tenfold in others, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.Last week, the social media giant released Facebook Gaming earlier than planned to cater to the...
Apr.27 -- Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in his first public statement since returning to work after his hospitalization for Covid-19, urged the U.K. not to let up on the social distancing measures that he said are bringing the coronavirus under control. Lifting the lockdown now would risk a "second spike" of infections that would do even more damage, he said outside 10 Downing Street....
(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG became the latest European lender to try and put a price on the pain ahead because of the coronavirus, setting aside about 500 million euros ($542 million) to cover souring loans after a better-than-expected first quarter performance.Provisions for soured credit were probably the highest in six years and the lender scrapped its minimum target for capital buffers, the company said late Sunday. At the same time, revenue and net income beat analyst estimates during the three-month period, for a large part unaffected by the outbreak.Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing has been trying to reassure stakeholders the bank is entering the crisis stronger than it has been in a long time after he cut risk and refocused it on financing Germany’s exporters. But many of those clients are now hit hard by widescale lockdowns and disruptions of global supply chains, reviving old fears about the ability of...
Shares in Air France-KLM and Lufthansa led European stock market gains on Monday on hopes that government bailouts would see them through the coronavirus crisis. Lufthansa was up 7% in Frankfurt after a German minister said it would need to be supported, while Air France-KLM was 3.5% higher at 0829 GMT as investors digested a 7 billion euro ($7.6 billion) French state loan package announced late on Friday. Lufthansa, which warned last week it had cash to survive just weeks unaided amid a global air travel shutdown, is in talks over a state aid package worth about 10 billion euros, sources have said....
Desperate business owners in Russia have been pleading with the Kremlin for help in the pandemic shutdown. The response, however, has been slow and largely focused on big industries, leaving most smaller companies to fend for themselves and raising the prospect of massive unemployment and social unrest. The Kremlin’s anti-crisis measures reflect both its long-held emphasis on state-controlled companies and a fear of opening state coffers at a time when government revenue is drying up due to a plunge in oil prices and economic slump....
Apr.27 -- Bayer AG raised the specter of “considerable liquidity challenges” as it engages in high-stakes negotiations in the U.S. over claims that the company's Roundup weedkiller caused cancer. Chief Executive Officer Werner Baumann discusses the challenges facing the drugmaker, and comments on the outlook for trials of its chloroquine Malaria drug as a treatment for Covid-19 patients, in an interview on "Bloomberg Markets: European Open."...
