WASHINGTON: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday the Trump administration will investigate whether Chinese artificial intelligence models were built using technology stolen from American companies, warning that sanctions could follow if evidence of intellectual property theft is found. The comments come as Chinese open-weight models gain ground against leading U.S. offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic,…
DETROIT: General Motors is hitting the brakes on its all-electric ambitions, announcing plans to roll out a new generation of gas-powered Cadillac models starting next spring. The move marks a significant shift for the luxury brand, which had previously pledged to go fully electric by the end of the decade. During the company’s second-quarter earnings…
SANDNES: Vår Energi ASA and BlueNord ASA have agreed to combine their businesses in a transaction that will create the largest independent oil and gas producer in Europe, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal adds high-quality, long-life assets on the Danish Continental Shelf to Vår Energi’s portfolio, bringing stable long-term production with limited near-term investments. The combination is…
SEOUL: Samsung Biologics announced on Monday an all-cash bid of 1.46 billion Swiss francs ($1.8 billion) to acquire Switzerland’s PolyPeptide Group, a specialist in peptide-based active pharmaceutical ingredients. The deal marks the largest biopharmaceutical merger and acquisition in South Korean history, and signals Samsung’s aggressive entry into the red-hot market for obesity and diabetes treatments. Under…
NEW YORK: U.S. stock futures tumbled early Friday and a sell-off spread across Asian markets after American forces carried out a sixth consecutive night of strikes against Iran, deepening a standoff that has rattled investors already unsettled by a slide in semiconductor stocks. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell 420 points, or 0.8%. S&P 500 futures lost 0.9%,…
NEW YORK: Payments company Stripe and private equity firm Advent International have submitted a joint bid to acquire PayPal Holdings Inc. for $60.50 per share, a deal that would value the digital payments pioneer at more than $53 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter. The offer, made earlier this month, is backed…
International Business Machines (IBM) saw its stock tumble 23% on Tuesday, marking its steepest single-day decline since October 19, 1987, when shares fell 23.7%. The selloff came after the tech giant released preliminary second-quarter results that missed Wall Street’s estimates on both earnings and revenue. According to FactSet data, IBM reported adjusted earnings of $2.93…
EAGAN: Tavoron, a national provider of industrial automation, robotics, compressed air and motion control solutions, has acquired Fluidraulics Inc., a Pennsylvania- and Ohio-based automation component and systems distributor that has operated since 1967, the companies announced. The deal expands Tavoron’s motion control offerings and gives the company a stronger foothold in the Pittsburgh and Cleveland markets, according to…
ALPHARETTA: Stryten Energy LLC has agreed to acquire C&D Technologies, Inc. and Trojan Battery Company, LLC — together known as C&D Trojan — in a deal aimed at building one of the most comprehensive energy storage platforms in the industry. The two companies announced the signed definitive agreement today, framing the combination as a way to scale up…
FRANKFURT: German defense startup Helsing announced Monday that it closed a $1.8 billion funding round, pushing its valuation to $18 billion — a striking marker of investor appetite for European defense technology. The round drew both new and returning backers, including JPMorgan Chase along with venture firms Lightspeed Venture Partners and Iconiq. According to Helsing, demand from investors…
LONDON: In a bold move that could reshape the global coatings industry, Nippon Paint has confirmed it submitted a €7.5 billion ($8.55 billion) offer to acquire AkzoNobel’s decorative paints business. The unsolicited bid, announced Monday, comes just months after a much larger joint takeover attempt was rebuffed. The Japanese paint giant had previously teamed up with U.S.-based…
LONDON: Mastercard is exploring the sale of a majority stake in its U.K. payments subsidiary Vocalink back to British banks, the Financial Times reported Monday, as the company responds to concerns about a critical national infrastructure asset being under U.S. ownership. Vocalink operates much of the U.K.’s retail payments system, processing more than 90% of salaries, over…