BUSINESS

Volkswagen is considering closing several plants in Germany and slashing salaries by 10 percent as the ailing auto giant pursues a drastic cost-cutting plan, a media report said Monday.

The German CEO of major Japanese optical equipment manufacturer Olympus has stepped down after allegedly buying illegal drugs, the company said on Monday.

Civil society groups implored Google on Thursday to rigorously enforce its policy to demonetize environmental disinformation, saying ads placed alongside climate denial content persistently popped up despite the tech titan's pledge to crack down.

The quest by Boeing's new CEO to revive the aviation giant's fortunes suffered a serious blow when striking machinists voted down the latest contract proposal, prolonging a nearly six-week stoppage.

A US judge on Thursday blocked fashion group Tapestry's $8.5 billion deal to buy Capri, which owns luxury brands including Michael Kors and Versace, citing a potential loss of competition.

The IMF wants to know more about a cross-border payments system discussed by the BRICS group of countries this week and aimed at boosting non-dollar transactions, the Fund's managing director said Thursday.

Italy's leading bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, has reached a deal with trade unions for 9,000 voluntary job cuts -- around 10 percent of its workforce -- due to the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation.

An Irish regulator helping to police European Union data privacy said Thursday it had fined professional networking platform LinkedIn 310 million euros ($335 million) over breaching users' personal data for targeted advertising.

French luxury group Hermes posted Thursday a jump in third quarter sales, bucking the overall gloom in the sector caused by falling sales in China.

Taiwanese chipmaking giant TSMC halted shipments to a customer this month after its semiconductors were sent to China's Huawei, a Taipei government official told AFP, potentially breaching US sanctions.

Boeing workers in the Seattle region decisively rejected the US aerospace giant's latest contract offer on Wednesday, extending their nearly six-week strike.

Global growth is expected to ease slightly to 3.2 percent this year and remain at that level in 2025, the IMF announced Tuesday, while warning that the stable figures masked "important" regional and sectoral shifts.

European and Asian stock markets traded mixed Wednesday and oil prices retreated as investors focused on company earnings and the outlook for the US and Chinese economies.

Hyundai Motor had a lacklustre Indian market debut on Tuesday after raising $3.3 billion in the country's biggest-ever initial public offering, with shares down nearly five percent from their issue price in early trade.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was in China for the second time this year, he said on social media Tuesday, as the US technology giant seeks to shore up slumping sales in a crucial overseas market.

Disney said Monday it will name Bob Iger's successor as chief executive in early 2026 as it tapped former Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman as chairman of the entertainment giant.

Asian markets started the week on a mixed note Monday as traders weigh Chinese central bank interest rate cuts aimed at reigniting the world's number two economy, while gold hit a record high on geopolitical concerns.

Thousands of Stellantis workers went on strike Friday and protested in Rome over temporary layoffs and production stoppages by the maker of Fiat and Jeep in Italy.

The World Bank will unveil plans to tackle job creation, gender disparities, and food security at next week's gathering of the world's finance ministers and central bankers in Washington, its president said in an interview.

Netflix on Thursday said it added more than five million subscribers in the recently ended quarter but signaled slowing growth.

Executives from Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard are in Japan in a bid to overcome resistance to their $47-billion takeover of 7-Eleven's parent but are being given the cold shoulder, according to interviews published Thursday.

Raytheon, a subsidiary of major American defense contractor RTX, will pay more than $950 million to resolve fraud and bribery charges, the US Justice Department announced Wednesday.

Amazon announced significant investments in nuclear energy on Wednesday, joining other tech giants in aiming to meet the high electric power demands of artificial intelligence using atomic energy.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's X platform will not face the EU's stringent competition rules aimed at keeping digital markets open, the European Commission said on Wednesday.

Britain's annual inflation rate fell to a three-year low in September, official data showed Wednesday, fuelling speculation that the Bank of England will resume cutting interest rates next month.

US consumers are expected to spend close to $1 trillion during the winter holiday season, a slight uptick from the year prior, the National Retail Federation (NRF) said Tuesday.

Oil prices tumbled more than five percent Tuesday after a report said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told US President Joe Biden he would not strike Iran's crude or nuclear facilities.

Google on Monday signed a deal to get electricity from small nuclear reactors to help power artificial intelligence.

The EU on Friday told Chinese-founded e-commerce platform Temu to hand over more information as it suspects the site is failing to do enough to stop the sale of illegal products.