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Business news from Australia and around the world: companies, deals, earnings, regulation and the people running them.
1814 articles · page 14 of 38
Angel station in Islington, one of London's busiest Tube stops, could be forced to close for up to a year while its three aging escalators, the longest on the Underground, are replaced, Transport for London has confirmed.
Netflix has appointed former Disney executive Peter Rice as its new chief content officer, replacing Bela Bajaria, as the streaming giant confronts stagnating viewership and seeks to reinvigorate its programming. The change comes days after Netflix laid off roughly 1,000 employees, or 6% of its workforce, and follows a warning from co-CEO Ted Sarandos that the company is "not growing as fast as I want us to."
Smaller regional towns recorded the steepest rent increases in NSW and Victoria over the year to September, according to the Domain Rent Report, with the median asking rent for a house in regional NSW reaching $640 a week and double-digit rises in shires such as Berrigan and Glenelg.
A well-known individual is seeking a permanent court order preventing the Guardian and ITN from publishing details of serious allegations against him, with the High Court told on Friday that there is a serious risk he could harm himself if the claims became public. A trial later this month will decide whether the injunction should be made.
Aisata Diallo, a 24-year-old lifelong braider, has started Tressfecta, a company building tools for textured hair. Its first product, Plait Pilot, automates the time-consuming job of separating braiding hair into pieces before styling, a step that can take hours on its own. Diallo, who says she stopped braiding because of the physical toll the work takes on the body, hopes the device will make the profession less arduous for hairstylists.
Alphabet's self-driving car unit Waymo has been approved to participate in Ontario's automated vehicle pilot program, clearing the way for its first expansion into Canada. The company said it will begin by manually driving vehicles in Toronto to map local streets, before progressing to autonomous testing with safety operators and eventually a public robotaxi service.
Dame Judi Dench has joined more than 100 current and former cast and crew members of The Archers in urging the BBC to keep recording the Radio 4 drama in Birmingham, after the corporation scrapped plans for a new studio in the city as part of its £500m cost-cutting drive.
The International Monetary Fund has urged Chancellor John Healey to target savings on pensions and welfare rather than impose higher taxes on Britain's banks in the budget later this month, as the industry warns the move could throttle lending and harm economic growth.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has proposed designating Microsoft as having strategic market status in business software, a move that would let the regulator intervene in how the company designs, bundles and licenses its products. Comments are due November 13 and a final decision is expected by February 13, 2027.
Index provider MSCI has imposed an immediate freeze on certain index-related changes for Turkish equity securities, threatening to downgrade the country from emerging market to frontier or standalone market status if it fails to make sufficient progress by June 2027, as a stock manipulation scandal continues to shake confidence in Turkish markets.
The chief executive of Airbus has urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham not to award the UK's £2.4bn Skynet 6 military satellite contract to US rival Lockheed Martin, warning that the decision could cost Britain its key role in the European space industry for decades to come.
Used electric vehicles are holding their value far better than expected in Australia, with a recent auction of repairable EVs sparking a bidding frenzy as soaring petrol prices from the Iran conflict and cost-of-living pressures drive buyers toward cheaper-to-run alternatives.
Nike has announced plans to build a new global campus in Bengaluru, India, describing it as a long-term investment in one of its key growth markets while the company works to revive its business under CEO Elliott Hill. The announcement came alongside its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Oct. 1, as Nike also moves to cut costs and cope with falling revenue in China.
Elon Musk has unveiled a prototype of the Tesla Roadster 2 capable of flying using rocket thrusters, but an established flying car company has mocked the demonstration as mere show, as skeptics question whether the vehicle will ever reach production.
Shares in Britain's biggest banks fell on Friday amid reports that the government will raise a tax on lenders' profits later this month, in what would be a key test of the Labour administration's approach to financial services.
China's central bank bought gold for a 23rd consecutive month in September, making its largest monthly purchase in nearly three years, as Beijing seeks to reduce its dependence on US dollar assets and shield its reserves from financial and geopolitical risk, analysts say. Private households are also buying gold, though their motivation is protecting savings amid uncertainty in the domestic economy.
Taiwan is raising at least $4 billion through the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association to build an industrial park in Texas, a project designed to support the smaller manufacturers that major chipmakers such as TSMC and Foxconn rely on. The initiative aims to establish a long-term, sustainable supply chain in the United States that American firms and local workers can join.
Shares of French satellite operator Eutelsat jumped 19% on Friday and are up 25% over five days, after Ukraine accused SpaceX of restricting Ukrainian military access to its Starshield service and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the outage contributed to civilian deaths.
British food and drink exports to the European Union have fallen by more than a third since Brexit, with sugar, poultry, eggs and horticultural producers hit hardest, according to a new National Farmers' Union (NFU) analysis of HMRC data that has intensified political pressure on the government to ease post-Brexit trade barriers.
Norway's $2.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, may soon pour money into Western defence giants such as Airbus, BAE Systems and Boeing after an independent review recommended radical changes to its ethical investment guidelines. The Gjedrem Committee submitted its findings to the Norwegian Ministry of Finance on Thursday, arguing that the fund must adapt to a deteriorating geopolitical environment and prepare for conflicts that could escalate into war.
The Employment Court has ruled that five dancers at Wellington's Calendar Girls club were employees rather than independent contractors, a decision the dancers say sets an important precedent for the country's adult entertainment industry.
The two current Spirit of Tasmania ferries are a week out from their final voyage between Devonport and Geelong, with no confirmed buyer for the nearly 25-year-old vessels and no answer on where they will be moored if they are not sold before the new ships begin operating.
Carnival Cruises has announced it will remove two of its four Australian ships from March 2028, saying it needs long-term certainty and globally competitive operating conditions to support future investment. The decision comes despite more than 1.4 million Australians taking a cruise last year.
A government-appointed committee has recommended that Norway's sovereign wealth fund be allowed to invest in companies that produce nuclear weapons and should steer clear of diplomatic disputes, in a review prompted partly by the fund's divestment from US construction giant Caterpillar over alleged rights violations linked to the war in Gaza.
Ofgem has opened a consultation on forcing energy suppliers to pay rivals a charge when they win customers with cheaper deals, as the regulator for Great Britain moves to prevent suppliers going bust during a winter it expects to be difficult for households. The proposal responds to sharp swings in energy prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East.
Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson has confirmed the airline knew bed bugs were on flight QF5 before it departed Perth for Rome last Friday, and that removing seat covers while the plane was on the ground was not enough to eliminate them. Passengers on the 16-hour Boeing 787 Dreamliner service woke to find the insects crawling across their bodies, clothes and bags.
An influential economist has warned the world is on the verge of a second, more intense phase of the 'China shock', as Beijing's share of global goods exports surges to nearly 19 per cent despite fresh US tariffs.
Private equity funds are increasingly pushing their portfolio companies to take on more debt to return cash to investors, as traditional exit routes via IPOs and company sales remain largely shut, according to new Moody's Ratings analysis.
Shares of Hybe, the company behind K-pop supergroup BTS, surged 10 per cent on Friday as investors weighed an upbeat third-quarter earnings outlook powered by the band's world tour and the expanding international reach of its newer acts.
US chemical giant 3M outlined its planned defence on Thursday against the Commonwealth's $2 billion lawsuit over PFAS contamination at 28 Australian Defence Force bases, telling the Federal Court it will 'attack' the largest claim ever brought by the Australian government when it files its formal defence in December.
Forrestania Resources has confirmed first ore from its Johnson Range mine has been delivered to the Edna May run-of-mine pad in Western Australia, putting the company on a fast track to restart gold production in mid-December. The company said project execution risk has been materially reduced, with a new mill liner shipment underway for a late-November arrival and the first cell of its tailings storage facility nearing completion. Western Australia's tightly regulated tailings framework requires formal approvals for new cells and substantial facility changes.
Aurum Resources has reported additional high-grade gold intercepts, including a bonanza 0.65-metre zone grading 41.38 grams per tonne, from drilling at its BST1 deposit in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa. The results, released ahead of a key resource update expected by the end of October, extend mineralization beyond the existing 570,000-ounce resource and could support an expanded project resource.
The NRL has won the first legal round in its dispute with New Zealand Rugby over the use of the name 'Chiefs' for its new Papua New Guinea expansion team, with a Wellington judge refusing an urgent injunction that could have forced the club to change its name before its debut season in 2028.
Pilbara Minerals (PLS) has approved a $1.9 billion expansion of its Pilgangoora mine in Western Australia's north-west, a move the company says could make it the world's largest hard-rock lithium operation, surpassing the famed Greenbushes mine in the state's south-west.
Auckland-based biotechnology start-up Daisy Lab, which produces animal-free dairy proteins using precision fermentation, has been acquired by United Kingdom industrial biotechnology company Mycofeast, signalling a global expansion for the local firm.
Accused domestic abuser Antony Catalano is free to travel to Bali to be with his family as his legal team continues efforts to resolve allegations he threatened to kill his wife in their St Kilda penthouse.
The cost of insuring against default on big technology firms' debt has soared to record highs, led by heavily indebted data centre operator CoreWeave, reviving concerns about how the artificial intelligence build-out is being financed, analysts say. This week, the spread on CoreWeave's five-year credit default swaps (CDS) jumped 16 percent to a record 1.14 percent before easing slightly to 1.03 percent, according to market data.
ASX 300-listed Lindian Resources says construction at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi has hit key milestones, keeping it on track for first monazite concentrate production in December, with plant transformers scheduled to be fired up in the first week of November.
Intero Biosystems, a Denver-based startup growing miniature human intestines for drug testing, has won the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco, taking home the Startup Battlefield Cup and $100,000. The company beat out 19 other competitors, with Australian anti-scam startup Apate finishing as runner-up.
MSCI has approved new rules that could eject companies that exist mainly to hold investments from its global equity indexes, placing Strategy, Metaplanet and Upexi at risk of removal, with the final list of deletions to be announced on November 11.
Global raw sugar prices have surged to a 19-month high of 21.10 US cents (30 cents) a pound, driven by rising oil costs, a poorly performing Brazilian crop and political uncertainty before the country's presidential run-off election. The rally has brought relief to struggling Australian cane farmers, who had watched prices slump to 13.36 US cents (19 cents) a pound in June.
Netflix said Thursday that Bela Bajaria will step down as chief content officer after nearly a decade at the company, with former Disney and Fox executive Peter Rice taking over the role effective Oct. 26. The leadership change lands a day after the streaming giant eliminated approximately 6% of its workforce, about 1,000 jobs.
Hundreds of security screening staff at Sydney Airport walked off the job on Friday, staging two four-hour strikes in both domestic and international terminals after failed crisis talks with contractor Certis over pay, job security and working conditions.
Danika Mason has announced she is leaving the Today show, becoming the fourth high-profile presenter to depart the program since June. The sports presenter, who is going on maternity leave, said she had made the tough decision not to return when she comes back next year.
Porsche on Thursday unveiled the Mission S concept car, a midengine vehicle that previews a new design direction and a flagship model above its iconic 911. The debut is part of the 'Sportwagenschmiede '35' turnaround plan announced last week, which aims to restore profitability through higher-end products and lower sales volumes.
KFC's US restaurants will abandon PepsiCo and pour Coca-Cola beverages starting next year, the first time in decades the Yum Brands chain has changed its drink supplier. The company announced the move on Thursday as part of an effort to win back American diners from rivals such as Chick-fil-A and Popeyes.
The first wave of redundancies has struck the Whyalla steelworks, with more than 250 workers finishing up this week following last month's announcement that hundreds of positions would be lost. Among them is 58-year-old Barry Drage, a furnace man who has worked at the plant for about two decades, who said he hopes to remain in Whyalla but may be forced to move to Adelaide.
Australian motorists face another year of double-digit premium increases, with comprehensive car insurance costs rising almost 60% since 2023 and nearly doubling since 2020, according to a journalist's analysis that mirrors broader industry trends flagged by the corporate regulator.