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| Vodafone to buy Spain's Ono for $10.03 billion: source Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 09:26 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Britain's Vodafone has agreed to buy Spanish cable operator Ono for 7.2 billion euros ($10.03 billion) in a deal that is set to be announced on Monday, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The purchase of private equity-backed Ono will be Vodafone's third European fixed-broadband acquisition in two years as the company seeks to improve its networks and shore up its European businesses after the $130 billion sale of its U.S. arm. Vodafone declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| Shares under duress as diplomatic tensions rise on Crimea Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 08:04 PM PDT  By Hideyuki Sano TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares took refuge near one-month lows as Western countries issued fresh warnings of more sanctions on Moscow after Crimea voted overwhelmingly to break from Ukraine to join Russia, as expected. Japan's Nikkei led the losses with fall of 0.3 percent, sliding to one-month low while U.S. stock futures fell as much as 0.5 percent to three-week low at one point. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dipped 0.1 percent to stay near Friday's one-month low, after slumping 2.9 percent last week, its biggest fall in more than six months. "The markets were expecting Crimea to agree to join Russia. Full Story | Top |
| Twitter CEO Costolo to make first China visit Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 07:36 PM PDT  By Gerry Shih SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc CEO Dick Costolo will meet Shanghai government officials, academics and students in his first visit to China, signaling Twitter's interest in cracking a lucrative but thorny market with 600 million Internet users. Twitter, which has been blocked by Chinese censors since 2009, described the trip as a personal tour for Costolo, who is due to land at Shanghai's Pudong International Airport on Monday and plans to spend three days in the business capital. Costolo is scheduled to meet Shanghai government officials — including representatives of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, established in 2013 to test market liberalization measures, such as looser rules governing currency conversion and foreign direct investment. Full Story | Top |
| Toyota India unit locks out workers at two plants as pay dispute drags Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 07:25 PM PDT  Toyota Motor Corp's Indian unit has declared a lockout of its workers at two car plants after strained salary negotiations spurred workers to stop production lines. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) in a statement said it has locked out workers at the plants near Bangalore since Sunday. Over the past 25 days, some workers have stopped production lines and disrupted business as the management, labour union and local government failed to reach an agreement over salaries, TKM said. "The company is left with no other option but to declare a lockout of the premises to ensure the safety of its workers and management personnel," TKM said. Full Story | Top |
| North Korea fires 25 short-range and obsolete rockets: South Korea Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 07:22 PM PDT North Korea fired 10 short-range missiles into the sea off the east of the Korean peninsula on Sunday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unidentified government officials in South Korea. North Korea is not banned from short-range missile launches under U.N. sanctions and frequently tests its arsenal. The U.S. State Department said it was closely monitoring the situation after the reports of the missile firing. "We once again call on North Korea to refrain from provocative actions that aggravate tensions," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a brief statement. Full Story | Top |
| Truckers' strike at Vancouver port to continue Monday Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 07:10 PM PDT A two-and-a-half week container truck driver strike at Port Metro Vancouver was set to continue on Monday after a government and port authority plan to end the job action at Canada's largest port failed to make headway on the weekend. The 14-point plan, revealed late on Thursday by the Canadian and British Columbia governments and the port authority, sets out to address the concerns of the striking drivers on fair pay, reduced wait times at container facilities and the creation of an industry oversight committee. It also called for the striking drivers, who include unionized and independent truckers, to return to work immediately, ending a strike that has crippled operations and delayed the transport of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of goods. Gavin McGarrigle, British Columbia area director for Unifor, the union that represents about 400 container truck drivers, said it had responded to the 14-point plan with some questions but that it had been told it would get no answers until truckers returned to work. Full Story | Top |
| Fannie, Freddie bill leaves status of private shareholders to courts Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 06:07 PM PDT  By Margaret Chadbourn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A draft bill to wind down government-run mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , released by two leading U.S. senators on Sunday, would leave a decision on how to treat their private shareholders to the courts. The 442-page draft from the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and the panel's top Republican would keep in place current terms of the government's bailout of the two companies that require them to sweep all their profits into the U.S. Treasury. It is silent on whether or not private shareholders should share in any proceeds when the companies are liquidated. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two leading sources of U.S. mortgage funds, were seized by the government during the financial crisis in 2008 and propped up with $187.5 billion in taxpayer funds. Full Story | Top |
| British media tycoon considers Channel 5 float: Sky Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 06:00 PM PDT  (Reuters) - British media baron Richard Desmond is considering a stock market listing of free-to-air TV broadcaster Channel 5, Sky News reported, citing sources. Desmond is working with investment bankers from Goldman Sachs on the possible floatation, Sky News said on its website, adding that the bank had taken the idea of listing Channel 5 to Desmond in recent weeks. (http://link.reuters.com/ban67v) Media reports in January said Desmond had hired Barclays to look for buyers for the television network and was expecting to raise about 700 million pounds ($1.16 billion) through the sale. ... Full Story | Top |
| SoftBank jumps to seven-week high on news of Alibaba U.S. listing Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 05:57 PM PDT  TOKYO (Reuters) - Shares in SoftBank Corp jumped as much as 6.6 percent to a seven-week high of 8,239 yen on Monday morning after its Chinese e-commerce affiliate Alibaba Group Holdings decided to hold its long-awaited share listing in the United States. Alibaba said in a statement on Sunday it had decided to begin the U.S. IPO process, ending months of speculation about where it would go public. The Chinese firm is in discussions with six banks to underwrite the deal, set to be the most high-profile public offering since Facebook Inc's listing nearly two years ago. ... Full Story | Top |
| 'Good night': Haunting final contact from missing Malaysian jet Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 05:33 PM PDT  By Anshuman Daga, Niluksi Koswanage and Tim Hepher KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The last words from the cockpit of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 - "all right, good night" - were uttered after someone on board had already begun disabling one of the plane's automatic tracking systems, a senior Malaysian official said. Both the timing and informal nature of the phrase, spoken to air traffic controllers as the plane with 239 people aboard was leaving Malaysian-run airspace on a March 8 flight to Beijing, could further heighten suspicions of hijacking or sabotage. The sign-off came after one of the plane's data communication systems, which would have enabled it to be tracked beyond radar coverage, had been deliberately switched off, Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said on Sunday. The pilot's informal hand-off went against standard radio procedures, which would have called for him to read back instructions for contacting the next control center and include the aircraft's call sign, said Hugh Dibley, a former British Airways pilot and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Full Story | Top |
| Guinness pulls out of NY's St. Patrick's parade over ban on gays Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 05:30 PM PDT  By Elizabeth Barber BOSTON (Reuters) - Irish brewer Guinness said on Sunday that it would not participate in New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade this year because gay and lesbian groups had been excluded, costing organizers a key sponsor of the annual event. The move came on the same day that Boston's Irish-American mayor skipped that city's St. Patrick's Day parade after failing to hammer out a deal with organizers to allow a group of gay and lesbian activists to march openly. "Guinness has a strong history of supporting diversity and being an advocate for equality for all. "As this has not come to pass, Guinness has withdrawn its participation. Full Story | Top |
| Nikon drops to five-week low after China consumer show criticism Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 05:25 PM PDT  Shares in Nikon Corp shed 4.2 percent to a five-week low of 1,686 yen on Monday morning after it was criticized by a Chinese consumer show that said the camera maker had sold defective products in China and denied local consumers fair treatment in after-sales service. Nikon, which had sales of 118 billion yen ($1.16 billion) in China in 2013, said on Sunday that it was taking the report "very seriously" and had moved to improve its after-sales network in China, according to its official microblogging sites. Full Story | Top |
| Factbox: Senate Fannie, Freddie bill maintains U.S. backstop on home loans Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 05:14 PM PDT (Reuters) - A draft bill to remake the nation's $10 trillion mortgage market and wind down government-run companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , the two housing finance giants that were bailed out by taxpayers in 2008, was released by two leading senators on Sunday. The 442-page draft from the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and the panel's top Republican would provide an explicit government guarantee for mortgages that would kick in only after private creditors took a hit. Currently, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders and repackage them as securities for sale to investors and provide a guarantee to make investors whole in case loans default. The bill aims to preserve the benefits that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide, mainly the steady stream of mortgage money that makes the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage cheap and widely available. Full Story | Top |
| Vodafone to buy Spain's Ono for 7.2 billion euros: source Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 04:35 PM PDT  (Reuters) - Britain's Vodafone has agreed to buy Spanish cable operator Ono for 7.2 billion euros ($10.03 billion) in a deal that is set to be announced on Monday, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters. The purchase of private equity-backed Ono will be Vodafone's third European fixed-broadband acquisition in two years as the company seeks to improve its networks and shore up its European businesses after the $130 billion sale of its U.S. arm. Vodafone declined to comment. Full Story | Top |
| Global shares under pressure as diplomatic tensions rise on Crimea Sunday, Mar 16, 2014 04:21 PM PDT  Asian shares got off to a shaky start on Monday after citizens of Crimea overwhelmingly voted to break with Ukraine to join Russia, prompting the U.S. and the European Union to issue fresh warnings of imminent sanctions against Moscow. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was off 0.2 percent in early trade after slumping 2.9 percent last week, its biggest in more than six months. The tense backdrop pulled U.S. stock futures down 0.5 percent to the lowest in three weeks while Japan's Nikkei was also expected to fall further from a one-month low hit on Friday. "The markets were expecting the Crimean to agree to join Russia. Full Story | Top |
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