Microsoft Corp is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years, as the software maker looks to slim down and integrate Nokia Oyj's handset unit, people with knowledge of the company's plans said. The reductions - which may be unveiled as soon as this week - will probably be in areas such as Nokia and divisions of Microsoft that overlap with that business, as well as marketing and engineering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are not public.
Updated 6 Years ago

North Korea has showed detailed photos of Kim Jong Un directing rocket launches from a site close to the South in an apparent act of defiance that puts a personal face of its leader to actions provoking its neighbours. Satellite imagery and photos released by state media show the rockets were fired several kilometres north of a popular South Korean tourist observatory near the inter-Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ).
Updated 6 Years ago

Pemex has awarded a project to build the 530MW Cactus Cogeneration power station in Mexico to a consortium comprising Mexican firms Enesa Energía, Invenergy Clean Power and Mexichem, the state-owned oil firm said in a press release. The consortium will partner with MGC Cactus, an affiliate of Pemex-Gas y Petroquímica Básica (PGPB).
Updated 6 Years ago

The Uruguayan government called a consultancy tender to provide input in drafting a mining industry development plan. Interested consulting firms will have to gather data to determine if a productive value chain between the mining industry and the rest of the country's industrial and productive sectors is viable, among other responsibilities.
Updated 6 Years ago

China's shadow banking firms slashed lending to property developers in the first half of this year, closing off a crucial funding avenue just as the housing market cools, potentially spelling trouble for the sector and the broader economy. Trust companies, which pool money from rich people and companies to make high-interest loans and are part of the China's vast and opaque shadow banking system, were a ready source of cash during the housing boom, particularly for smaller developers that had trouble borrowing from banks.
Updated 6 Years ago

The U.S. House approved an $11 billion plan to replenish the federal fund for highway and mass-transit projects through May 2015. On a 367-55 vote, the House backed legislation that will probably also pass the Senate and arrive on President Barack Obama’s desk before payments from the fund to states begin to slow Aug. 1. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today that his chamber will vote on the House bill this month, alongside a competing version that doesn’t have as much support.
Updated 6 Years ago

Gtech SpA (GTK) agreed to buy International Game Technology (IGT) for $4.7 billion in cash and stock, uniting the world’s largest provider of lottery systems with the biggest slot-machine maker. Gtech will pay $18.25 for each share for Las Vegas-based IGT, or $13.69 in cash plus 0.1819 shares in a newly formed holding company, the Italian company said in a statement today. That’s about 18 percent more than IGT’s last closing price of $15.50. The total transaction value is about $6.4 billion including about $1.75 billion in existing IGT debt, Gtech said.
Updated 6 Years ago

Rioforte Investments SA, a holding company in Portugal’s Espirito Santo group, failed to pay 847 million euros ($1.2 billion) of short-term debt, becoming the second company in the group to miss a payment. Rioforte owes the money to Portugal Telecom SGPS SA, which said today the payment wasn’t made. Rioforte owns 49 percent of Espirito Santo Financial Group, which in turn holds 20 percent of Banco Espirito Santo SA, Portugal’s second-biggest bank by market value.
Updated 6 Years ago

The group of emerging economies signed the long-anticipated document to create the $100 bn BRICS Development Bank and a reserve currency pool worth over another $100 bn. Both will counter the influence of Western-based lending institutions and the dollar. The new bank will provide money for infrastructure and development projects in BRICS countries, and unlike the IMF or World Bank, each nation has equal say, regardless of GDP size.
Updated 6 Years ago

Jean-Claude Juncker has been appointed the new boss of the European Parliament, as he promised to ‘reindustrialize’ the economy and put the EU’s 25 million unemployed back to work. The 59-year-old former Luxembourg Prime Minister takes the post at a hard time for the European economy. The 28 EU member state unemployment rate is hitting 10 percent, with 5.2 million young people or almost every fifth youth without a job. Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund cut the GDP growth forecast to 1 percent in 2014 instead of the 1.1 percent announced earlier.
Updated 6 Years ago