By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – Tesla shares climbed to a record high of $415 on Wednesday, topping its prior high of $414.50 set more than three years ago as the electric vehicle maker extended a rally in the wake of the U.S. presidential election. Shares of Tesla previously hit a record on Nov. 3, 2021, but a rally of about 65% since the Nov. 5 election has lifted the stock to new heights … Read more…
(Reuters) -A U.S. judge blocked the pending $25-billion merger of U.S. grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons on Tuesday, siding with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in a win for the Biden administration. U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson’s ruling essentially scuttles the merger, Kroger has said in court documents. The FTC argued at a three-week trial in Portland, Oregon, that the merger would eliminate head-to-head competition between the top two traditional grocery chains, leading to higher … Read more…
(Reuters) – Apple plans to bring satellite connections to its smartwatch in 2025 and is ramping up work on a blood-pressure feature for the device, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. The satellite feature is expected to come to next year’s version of the iPhone maker’s Apple Watch Ultra, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. The feature will allow users to send messages without cellular or internet connection. Apple began to offer satellite … Read more…
(Reuters) – Shares of Google parent Alphabet rose about 5% on Tuesday after it unveiled a new generation chip that the company said helped overcome a key challenge in quantum computing. Google on Monday introduced a new chip called Willow, which solved in five minutes a computing problem that would take a classical computer more time than the history of the universe. Tech companies are chasing quantum computing in hopes of developing systems that perform … Read more…
By Patrick Wingrove (Reuters) – Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks on Tuesday said at the Economic Club of Washington that tax and regulation reform and drug affordability were some policy focuses for the company in a second Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump met with Ricks and the chief executive of industry lobbying group PhRMA in Florida last week. It was also reported that Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla attended. The Lilly CEO did not share details … Read more…
(Reuters) – Norton and Avast owner Gen Digital has agreed to buy fintech firm MoneyLion in an all-cash deal valued at about $1 billion to beef up its consumer finance offerings, the companies said on Tuesday. Gen Digital will pay $82 for each MoneyLion share, a 6.5% premium to MoneyLion’s last closing price. Additionally, MoneyLion shareholders will receive one contingent value right per share, entitling them to $23 in Gen Digital common shares, subject to … Read more…
(Reuters) – Tesla aims to start its robotaxi service with a company-owned fleet backed up by human teleoperators for safety, Deutsche Bank said in a note after a meeting with the company’s head of investor relations. The electric vehicle maker still is shooting for a launch of its cheaper vehicle in the first half of next year and other models later in the year, the bank said after the meeting with investor relations chief Travis … Read more…
(Reuters) -Packaging firm Novolex will buy rival Pactiv Evergreen in a $6.7 billion deal, as the Apollo Global Management-owned firm looks to bolster its business of food and beverage packaging in a cautious economic environment. Novolex will offer $18 per share to take Pactiv private in an all-cash transaction, including debt, the companies said on Monday. The deal represents a 32.4% premium to Pactiv’s closing price on Dec. 2, a day before Bloomberg News first … Read more…
By Anna Tong SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – – A former OpenAI researcher has raised $40 million for a startup that will build artificial-intelligence models that connect emotionally with humans via voice, the company said on Monday. The startup, WaveForms AI, is backed by Andreessen Horowitz and valued at $200 million, CEO Alexis Conneau told Reuters. Conneau co-created the voice mode capability on OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, which when released earlier this year showed off the capability to … Read more…
BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s Interior Minister Juan Fernando Cristo on Monday said the government’s proposed 12 trillion peso ($2.73 billion) fiscal reform was “not viable,” but added that a smaller sum could be achieved. Colombia’s government presented its latest fiscal reform to Congress in September, which it hopes will finance spending in 2025 by increasing taxes and taking on more debt. “I believe, to be completely frank and sincere, that today it’s not viable to … Read more…