European companies are curtailing activities in Iran after the recent announcement by John Bolton, who promised fines and other punishments to those who would continue to cooperate with the Iranians. Obviously, European business does not really believe European politicians, at least when it comes to relations with the US and Europe's independence in foreign policy. The European Union has repeated...

The Financial Times and the US publishing house New York Media, which owns the New York Magazine, withdrew part of their ads from Facebook in response to introduction of new rules for marking materials on resonant topics. The editions did not like that a number of their news publications in accordance with the new rules of Facebook can be marked in the same way as political advertising. Last...

The court of New York satisfied claim of American performers to the streaming service Spotify. After two trials, Spotify will pay musicians $ 112 million. This is the first time that a streaming service will pay such a large amount as compensation to performers. The first lawsuit against the company three years ago was filed by David Lowery, copyright defender of Camper Van Beethoven band and...

In the first quarter of 2018, Samsung Electronics consolidated its position as the leader in the global chip market. For the first time, the company has become the leader in the second quarter of 2017, outstripping the American corporation Intel. According to the analytical company IC Insights, at the beginning of last year Samsung's semiconductor revenue was 5% lower than that of Intel, then the...

Head of the London financial department JPMorgan Chase & Co Oliver Harris will be responsible for the bank's crypto-currency strategy. He will also head a project developed by Quorum company and aimed at creating the bank’s own blockchain platform. This is reported by Financial News. The news that JPMorgan has decided to create its own crypto-currency strategy is noteworthy. Earlier, the...

The first quarter of this year turned out to be quite profitable for two banking giants from Europe. The net profit of the second largest German bank, Commerzbank AG, attributable to shareholders in the first quarter of 2018, increased by 9.2% compared to the same period last year, up to € 250 million, according to the financial institution. Profit before taxes and operating profit amounted to...

Strike of Air France staff, held from February 22 to May 8, cost the company € 400 million. Number of the company’s passengers decreased by 8.7%. Having failed to find a common language with the working unions, General Director of the group Air France-KLM Jean-Marc Janaillac left his post. The Minister of Economy of France Bruno Le Maire warns that the company can lose to competitors. 15 days of...

Total and Clean Energy Fuels Corp have entered into a broad strategic agreement to convert heavy trucks to natural gas. Total agreed to buy 50.8 million shares of Clean Energy for 83.4 million US dollars. After the deal is concluded, Total will become the largest shareholder of Clean Energy, owning 25% of all issued shares. This transaction received preliminary approval of the meeting of...

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc reached a preliminary agreement on payment of $ 4.9 billion to settle the US claims in investigation of transactions with mortgage securities. This is reported by Bloomberg. Thus, RBS eliminated one of the last barriers that prevented the UK from reducing its stake in the bank. The bank’s management said that the RBS will begin negotiations with the British...