Corporate

The japanese beer group Asahi said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire beer brands SABMiller Plc’s eastern European assets including Pilsner Urquell from Anheuser-Busch InBev NV for 7.3 billion euros ($7.8 billion),

The deal gives bigger international heft to Asahi, which is one of the top beer makers in its home market of Japan, but only a small player globally. Asahi said it planned to acquire brands in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.

AB InBev said it had made commitments to the European Commission to sell the CEE Business under the business combination with SABMiller.

Google and the Cuban government have struck a deal giving Cubans faster access to the Internet giant’s content, two people familiar with the agreement said on Friday, as AP reported today.

Google is installing multiple servers in Cuba that will host much of the company’s most popular content, the person said on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been made public. The agreement was being announced by Google chairman Eric Schmidt Monday morning in Havana.

The European Union has given Microsoft the green light over its $26 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, CNBC reports. As expected, the EU has put some conditions in the deal. As expected, the EU has put some conditions in the deal.

The European Commission granted its approval on the condition that Microsoft allows rival professional networking sites to integrate its Office applications and cloud-computing services for the next five years. PC makers in the EU will also have the option of not installing LinkedIn’s app, Microsoft said.

Credit Suisse announced on Wedsneday more than CHF1 billion ($991 million) in extra cost cuts, as Chief Executive Tidjane Thiam looks to compensate for challenging conditions which have hampered his restructuring of the lender as Reuters report.

In a statement ahead of its investor day, the bank lowered its operating cost base target for 2018 to below 17 billion francs from below 18 billion francs. It also increased planned net cost savings target to greater than 4.2 billion francs by end-2018 from 3.2 billion.

Netflix yesterday briefly became the number one top-grossing iOS app in the U.S. for the first time, holding at bay the likes of Spotify and Candy Crush Saga for most of Monday.

The app also occupied the coveted top spot on iPhone in India, Mexico, and Colombia yesterday, as noted by app tracking company SensorTower, which offered a timeline leading up to the achievement in a blog post.

The accomplishment comes approximately one year after Netflix introduced the ability for users to pay the monthly subscription fee as an in-app purchase. Between then and today, Netflix has grown its weekly net revenue from under $50,000 to nearly $2.9 million, its report says.

Amazon unveiled technology that will let shoppers grab groceries without having to scan and pay for them, eliminating the checkout line.
The company is testing the new system at what it’s calling an Amazon Go store in Seattle, which will open to the public early next year. Customers will be able to scan their phones at the entrance using a new Amazon Go mobile app. Then the technology will track what items they pick up or even return to the shelves and add them to a virtual shopping cart in real time, according a video Amazon posted on YouTube.

Nestlé has announced the discovered a way to significantly reduce the amount of sugar that goes into its KitKat, Butterfinger and other candy bars, without affecting the taste of the novelty products.

Scientists at the Swiss food giant said the breakthrough will allow the company to cut sugar content in the products by up to 40%, with the apparent sweetness of chocolate and other confectionery products being unchanged.

“Our scientists have discovered a completely new way to use a traditional, natural ingredient,” said Nestle’s Chief Technology Officer, Stefan Catsicas, in a statement last week.

Credit Suisse is preparing a new cost-savings program that puts as many as 1,300 jobs in Switzerland on the line, according to Schweiz am Sonntag.

The plan will be announced Wednesday, when the lender holds its investor day in London, the newspaper said, without saying where it got the information. Credit Suisse’s Swiss unit may slash an additional 1,000 to 1,300 positions, or about eight to 10 percent of the unit’s workforce, it said. Last week, Bloomberg reported that the group is cutting about 175 jobs in London to lower costs, part of its overhaul that sees the lender focusing more on wealth management.