business and finance

Private-equity backed companies dominate lowest depths of junk

Two-thirds of companies with lowly ratings from Moody’s were bought by PE groups




business and finance

Latest Isa rates

Up-to-date tax-efficient savings deals




business and finance

Investors Chronicle: JD Sports, AstraZeneca, Virgin Money UK

Companies analysis from our sister publication




business and finance

Frontier Developments chairman sells down

Share price surges after news breaks of deal with Games Workshop




business and finance

Dropping Flynn case turns Barr into Trump’s political sword

Pardoning cronies is offensive but precedented. Using DoJ to go after enemies is Nixonian




business and finance

Can companies still afford to care about sustainability?

Will environmental and social initiatives survive Covid-19? Our specialists answered your questions




business and finance

UK PLC cuts dividends by £24bn in face of crisis

Investors braced for years of lower payouts by some of the most reliable dividend-paying stocks




business and finance

Warren Buffett held the wrong stocks as the music stopped

Few investors went into this crisis with a portfolio they were entirely happy with




business and finance

Asian governments boost dollar borrowing to fight coronavirus

Countries in region issue debt at close to fastest rate in a decade due to pandemic




business and finance

Bain Capital makes $1bn bet on Japan’s nursing homes

Private equity bid for Nichii Gakkan could set a template for future management buyouts




business and finance

Private equity managers rebuked over slashing US doctor pay

Row escalates between Elizabeth Warren, Blackstone and KKR after coronavirus crisis prompts cuts




business and finance

‘50 cent’ gold fund tops European performance charts

Ruffer precious metal and Baillie Gifford tech vehicles shine during market turbulence




business and finance

Thyssenkrupp raises possibility of giving away factory unit

German conglomerate hopes to offload lossmaking division to focus on steel




business and finance

Schneider Electric warns of €300m hit from coronavirus

French group braced for revenue losses this quarter despite reopening most of its China factories




business and finance

Jingye tries to save British Steel rescue deal

Chinese group writes to French government as it seeks to reassure over the future of Hayange plant




business and finance

Volkswagen defies car downturn as profits surge

World’s largest auto group enjoys earnings boost and increases dividend




business and finance

VW chief defies sceptics with ambitious plans to overtake Tesla

Herbert Diess wants to sell 26m emission-free vehicles in 9 years, overtaking rivals including Californian electric pioneer




business and finance

Porsche chief warns battery costs will hit carmaker profits

Blume says industry faces supply constraints because of production ‘bottleneck’




business and finance

GM to boost electric car investment after battery breakthrough

US carmaker raises spending on EV and autonomous vehicles to $20bn by 2025




business and finance

PSA and BMW lead race to cut emissions in Europe

Early winners and losers emerge as carmakers scramble to hit tough new targets




business and finance

Companies’ supply chains vulnerable to coronavirus shocks

Shortages of components likely to be far worse than expected, warn experts




business and finance

Chinese buyer of British Steel to pursue French arm

Jingye to keep close contact with Paris as it completes takeover and saves 3,200 jobs




business and finance

Coronavirus puts electric carmakers on alert over lithium supplies

Battery maker Livent says industry is looking to diversify away from China




business and finance

Tech prowess propels Derby’s pioneering status

Past and present economic success offers base for manufacturing




business and finance

European car plants close as industry crisis deepens

PSA and Fiat Chrysler to shut factories as demand tumbles and supply chains disrupted




business and finance

Dyson to produce 15,000 ventilators ‘in weeks’

Two-thirds of machines to go to NHS following order from UK government




business and finance

VW hit by €2bn-a-week cash drain

World’s biggest carmakers reveal costs of pandemic shutting down factories around world




business and finance

VW still aiming for ID.3 electric car rollout by August

Group faces large fines if it fails to sell enough battery-powered vehicles in 2020




business and finance

1m car workers in Europe hit by coronavirus shutdowns

Heavy toll on jobs through lay-offs and cuts in pay and hours as one of region’s key industries comes to ‘abrupt halt’




business and finance

Continental auto profit margins fall to zero

German supplier scraps outlook and warns smaller contractors could go out of business




business and finance

Hitachi anticipates wave of Chinese infrastructure spending

Japanese conglomerate expects rebound in construction industry as cities end lockdowns




business and finance

Ventilator standards set out for UK makers ‘of no use’ to Covid patients 

Ministers’ challenge to manufacturers sets basic specifications that are not suitable to task, say experts 




business and finance

Ferguson sticks with main listing in UK after sounding out investors

FTSE 100 plumbing supplier runs into opposition from shareholders over switch to US




business and finance

Weakest link in supply chain threatens car industry revival

Big carmakers say small companies must be protected from collapse or factories may remain shut




business and finance

Chinese carmakers move into Myanmar to battle Japanese rivals

Soueast Motor and GAC take advantage of rules favouring locally made vehicles




business and finance

Co-founder of Chinese carmaker Qoros sells half his stake

Idan Ofer’s Kenon offloads shares to majority owner Baoneng in $237m deal




business and finance

Taiwan’s ‘hidden champions’ help coronavirus fightback

Race by machine tool makers to boost mask output underlines importance to economy




business and finance

How will coronavirus change the world? — Parlia launches to help you find out

“Is Greta Thunberg a hypocrite?” Google that phrase and you will get thousands of results. It just goes to show that, to a large extent, the “Q&A” model is broken on the internet. Where once Yahoo Answers and Quora were considered the bright young things of Web 2.0’s “Read/Write Web,” today there is only the […]




business and finance

Is it better to be a private or public company right now?

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. Every week we write this post with some opening line akin to wow, what a week, huh? This is yet another one of those weeks. Perhaps this is just life now, and every week will stretch before us, similar to […]




business and finance

Microsoft and AWS exchange poisoned pen blog posts in latest Pentagon JEDI contract spat

Microsoft and Amazon are at it again as the fight for the Defense Department JEDI contract continues. In a recent series of increasingly acerbic pronouncements, the two companies continue their ongoing spat over the $10 billion, decade-long JEDI contract spoils. As you may recall (or not), last fall in a surprise move, the DoD selected […]




business and finance

Boston Dynamics’ Spot is patrolling a Singapore park to encourage social distancing

Since announcing the commercial availability of Spot, Boston Dynamics has presented a range of different gigs for the robot, from construction to telepresence. Last month, the company announced it was partnering with local hospitals interested in using the platform to perform remote visits for COVID-19 victims. Turns out the global pandemic has spurred all manner […]





business and finance

Daily Crunch: Target acquires Deliv’s delivery tech

Target makes another acquisition, social platforms struggle with a “Plandemic” conspiracy video and Boston Dynamics’ robot Spot encourages social distancing. Here’s your Daily Crunch for May 8, 2020. 1. Target to acquire same-day delivery tech from Deliv Target, which already owns on-demand delivery service Shipt, is in the process of acquiring technology assets from same-day […]




business and finance

Facebook’s redesign goes live with simplified navigation and dark mode

After months of testing, Facebook’s redesign is finally official. Announced last year at F8, the more minimalist approach to its desktop design has been rolled out in waves. In March, the company added an option to try out the new version. Users could switch back and leave feedback for why they had done so. This […]




business and finance

Tesla prepares to bring back 30% of Fremont factory workers in spite of county order

Tesla is aiming to ramp up “limited operations” at its factory in Fremont, Calif., a decision that puts the company and its CEO Elon Musk in direct conflict with a stay-at-home order in Alameda County. Update: On Friday, Alameda County health officials said the automaker was told not to reopen. Employees received two emails — […]




business and finance

VCs see opportunities for gaming infrastructure startups and incumbents

As the infrastructure for developing games becomes more advanced, studios have turned to buying best-in-class technology from others instead of building everything from scratch (often with inferior quality). This shift underpinned Unity’s rise as the most popular game engine. The current focus on games as ever-evolving social hubs that can remain popular for a decade […]




business and finance

Uber pushes adjusted quarterly profit target to 2021

Uber has pushed its target to achieve a measure of profitability to a quarter in 2021, reversing a decision made just three months ago to move up the goal to the end of this year. Uber will miss its target to reach an adjusted EBITDA quarterly profit in the fourth period of 2020, CFO Nelson […]




business and finance

Google’s Duo video chat app gets a family mode with doodles and masks

Google today launched an update to its Duo video chat app (which you definitely shouldn’t confuse with Hangouts or Google Meet, Google’s other video, audio and text chat apps). There are plenty of jokes to be made about Google’s plethora of chat options, but Duo is trying to be a bit different from Hangouts and […]




business and finance

CRV’s Saar Gur wants to invest in a new wave of games built for VR, Twitch and Zoom

Saar Gur is adept at identifying the next big consumer trends earlier than most: The San Francisco-based general partner at CRV has led investments into leading consumer internet companies like Niantic, DoorDash, Bird, Dropbox, Patreon, Kapwing and ClassPass. His own experience stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic spurred his interest in three new investment […]




business and finance

Tesla hasn’t been given the ‘green light’ to reopen Fremont factory, health official says

Tesla has not been given the “green light” to open its factory in Fremont, Calif., Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Erica Pan said in a videostreamed town hall meeting Friday. Tesla made plans to open as early as Friday in defiance of the county’s extended stay-at-home order. Tesla said in an internal email sent to […]