12 The EconomistNovember 30th 2019
The world this week Business
Inthebiggest-evertakeoverin
theluxury-goodsindustry,
lvmh, a Frenchglobal
conglomerate,announcedits
acquisitionofTiffany, an
Americanjewellerfoundedin
1837 andknownforitsflagship
storeonFifthAvenueinNew
York.lvmhispaying$16.9bn,
morethantheroughly$14.5bn
thatwassuggestedwhenthe
transactionwasfirstmootedin
lateOctober.Thedeal
representsa successfor
BernardArnault,lvmh’s boss
andcontrollingshareholder,
whohadcourtedTiffanyfor
sometime.The magic trick
The flotation of Alibaba’s
shares on the Hong Kong
stockmarket raised $11.2bn,
making it the most valuable
share offering this year, ahead
of the $8.1bn that Uber raked in
at its ipo in May. The stock rose
by 6.6% on the first day of
trading in what is a secondary
listing in Alibaba. Its shares are
also listed in New York.Uberlost its licence to operate
in London, again. The ride-
hailing company has 45,
drivers in the city, one of its
biggest markets. London’s
transport regulator raised
more concerns about safety,
including 14,000 fraudulent
trips by unauthorised drivers.
Uber is appealing against the
decision and can continue to
operate while it does so.The chief executive of Westpac
resigned and the chairman
said he would step down next
year, as Australia’s second-
largest bank faced mounting
criticism about its response to
a money-laundering scandal. A
regulator has accused Westpac
of failing to monitor more than
23m suspect transactions,
some of which enabled child
exploitation in the Philippines.
The bank has found itself in
politicians’ cross-hairs. Aus-
tralia’s treasurer said it had
been indifferent to the scandal;
the attorney-general noted that
it was an “unbelievably
serious” matter. Westpac has
reportedly cancelled its
Christmas party.Charles Schwab, America’s
biggest discount broker, struck
a $26bn deal to acquire td
Ameritrade, a rival. The pair
had recently been engaged in a
price war, both ditching the
transaction fees they charged
customers. The combined
group will have around $5trn
in client assets.The Brazilian realfell to a new
low against the dollar, after
Brazil’s finance minister said
he was “not worried” about a
strong greenback. The slide
prompted a brief intervention
by the central bank to prop up
the currency. The country’s
current-account deficit has
risen sharply this year, and
interest rates have tumbled.Googlereportedly fired four
employees who had been
active in organising protests at
the company and had appar-
ently tried to gain access to
private internal documents.
The tech giant pioneered an
office culture that mixes poli-
tics with work, which it may
now regret. Vociferous staff
have pressed management to
drop an aicontract for the
Pentagon and have walked out
over sexual harassment and a
search-engine project for the
Chinese government. Their
latest gripe is Google’s work for
immigration enforcement.Google has told employees to
tone it down and reduced staff
meetings to one a month.In an effort to boost profits and
its feeble share price, Telefón-
icaannounced a plan to hive
off its operations in Spanish-
speaking Latin America and
focus on its core markets in
Spain, Brazil, Germany and
Britain, where it brands itself
as O2. The telecoms group also
wants to expand its business in
the internet of things and
cloud computing.On the lookout for new
superdrugs that will replenish
its portfolio, Novartisoffered
to buy The Medicines Com-
panyfor $9.7bn. tmc’s crown
jewel is inclisiran, a treatment
that has been found to be
highly effective in drug trials at
reducing “bad” cholesterol,
and which a patient needs to
inject only twice a year.America’s Federal Aviation
Administration said it alone
would inspect the 737 max
before it is returned to service,
relieving Boeing of the exercise
and signalling that it will sign
off each jet individually. That
could potentially extend the
time frame that Boeing has in
mind for resuming deliveries
of the grounded aircraft to
airlines.Tesla’sshare price struggled to
recover from the drubbing it
took after an unforeseen event
at the launch of its new Cyber-
truck, which has been de-
scribed as a cross between a
futuristic car from “Blade
Runner” and a SpongeBob
SquarePants character. The
vehicle’s supposedly ar-
moured-glass windows shat-
tered when a steel ball was
hurled at them during a de-
monstration. “Maybe that was
a little too hard,” said a startled
Elon Musk, Tesla’s boss.Sedol, going, gone
Lee Sedol, a Go champion, who
in 2016 lost a celebrated match
against AlphaGo, an artificial-
intelligenceprogram, an-
nounced his retirement. ai
programs now compete in
tournaments. Mr Lee reflected:
“Even if I become number one,
there is an entity that cannot
be defeated.”