Companies

CVS Health Corp. and Aetna Inc. received conditional approval to proceed with their proposed $68 billion merger, one of the largest in a series of recent deals that stand to transform the U.S. health-care business. The combination would create a giant with a hand in insurance, prescription-drug benefits, and drugstores across the U.S. By bringing […]

TORONTO—An Ontario business magnate is suing his daughter, two grandchildren, and others for allegedly mismanaging the family’s assets and trust funds. Frank Stronach, the man who started the autoparts business Magna International, and his wife, Elfriede, have launched the lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court and said they have done so as a last resort. Stronach said in a […]

The intellectual property (IP) provisions in the new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) push Canada to adopt stronger standards for protection.

At least two U.S. states and two European Union member states are investigating a breach at Google that may have exposed private profile data of at least 500,000 users to hundreds of external developers. The investigations follow Google’s announcement on Oct. 8 that it would shut down the consumer version of its social network Google+ […]

WASHINGTON—Tesla Inc claimed its Model 3 electric car has the lowest risk of occupant injury of any vehicle in U.S. government tests, but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the claim goes beyond the scope of its analysis on Oct. 9. The auto safety’s agency’s 5-Star Safety Ratings Program uses three crash tests and […]

Sears Holdings is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as early as Oct. 12, sources said on Oct. 10, casting doubt over the future of what was once the world’s largest retailer and sending its shares to a record low. Negotiations between Sears Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert and the company’s special board committee are […]

BRUSSELS—Regulators are set to exercise their new powers by handing out fines and even temporary bans on companies that breach a new EU privacy law, with the first round of sanctions expected by the end of the year, the bloc’s privacy chief said. The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), heralded as the biggest […]

Microsoft Corp. is on track to catch up with Amazon.com Inc. by obtaining top federal security authorizations early next year, bolstering the company’s position in the Pentagon’s winner-take-all competition for a multibillion-dollar cloud computing deal. The software company said Oct. 9 that it will earn the certification required to host the government’s most sensitive and […]

Microsoft Corp is investing in Southeast Asian ride-hailing firm Grab as part of a partnership that the two companies said will allow them to collaborate on technology projects, including big data and artificial intelligence. The companies did not disclose the deal value. Grab had earlier said it planned to raise roughly $3 billion by year-end, […]

SYDNEY—Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) said on Oct. 9 it will refund fees taken out of dead client accounts and unwind a controversial system of charging customers commissions on financial products. The changes, sparked by damaging revelations from a powerful inquiry into financial sector misconduct, come during a time of upheaval for Australia’s biggest financial […]

Facebook released a smart speaker designed to make video calling easier on Oct.8, but the company’s history of privacy mishaps and the device’s price and limited functionality could slow it from taking on market leaders Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google. The device, known as Portal, comes in $199 and $349 versions and its signature […]

Starbucks named Hyatt Hotels Corp.’s financial chief Patrick Grismer as its new chief financial officer on Oct.8, making another leadership change in the past year as it battles intense competition in a cooling U.S. coffee market. Grismer’s appointment completes a three-month search for a new finance chief since current CFO Scott Maw announced plans to […]

Google will shut down the consumer version of its social network Google+ after announcing data from up to 500,000 users may have been exposed to external developers by a bug that was present for more than two years in its systems. The company said in a blog on Oct. 8 it had discovered and patched […]

BENGALURU/MUMBAI—Amazon’s Indian business has denied accusations that it favors select merchants and brands, responding to a complaint lodged by an Indian lobby group. The All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) on Oct. 5 filed a petition with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) alleging that the online retailer favors merchants that it partly owns, such […]

NEW YORK—The steep decline in emerging market stocks since early this year are attracting some U.S. fund managers who think they may find long-term bargains amid the sell-off. Portfolio managers from Harding Loevner, Federated Investors, and Wells Fargo are among those who have been adding emerging markets stocks to their portfolios in the face of […]

Israel needs to open its food industry to foreign imports more aggressively to break the grip of the sector’s biggest companies and lower costs for consumers, the country’s antitrust chief said. Power in the country’s food making business is “much too concentrated” in the hands of five firms, including Strauss Group Ltd., Nestle SA’s Osem […]

COPENHAGEN—Danske Bank’s deepening money laundering scandal dragged its shares to a four-year low on Oct. 5 as Denmark’s biggest bank sought to calm investors over the impact of a U.S. criminal investigation into its Estonian branch. Morten Mosegaard, the bank’s interim chief financial officer, said the involvement of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in […]

TOKYO—Toyota Motor Corp. says it has issued a recall for 2.43 million hybrid vehicles in Japan and elsewhere for potential problems with stalling. The company said on Oct. 5, that in rare cases the vehicles might fail to enter a “failsafe” driving mode, lose power and stall. Power steering and braking would still work but […]

Activist investor Daniel Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point LLC has demanded access to a trove of records from Campbell Soup Co, ranging from board meeting minutes to financial documents, as it ratchets up a campaign to replace the company’s board of directors, according to a letter seen by Reuters. Third Point’s move offers an example […]

Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. denied a Bloomberg report on Oct. 4 that their systems had been infiltrated by malicious computer chips inserted by Chinese intelligence, according to statements from the companies released by Bloomberg. Bloomberg Businessweek cited 17 unnamed intelligence and company sources as saying that Chinese spies had placed computer chips inside equipment […]