<div>BNP Paribas, France’s largest bank, pleaded guilty to violating US economic sanctions against Iran, Sudan and other countries and agreed to pay a record $8.9 billion in penalties. The US Justice Department action against the French bank has sparked speculation that some of its rivals in Europe would also be punished. The US has focused its investigations on dollar operations of a handful of European banks with countries blacklisted by it. The probes, which began in 2009, are looking at the alleged transfer of billions of dollars to the accounts of blacklisted entities which benefited from a US legal loophole that closed in 2008. The investigations are being led by several US authorities: the justice and treasury departments, the Federal Reserve and New York’s Department of Financial Services.<br /><strong><br /><img width="120" height="120" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=7868aa61-a574-41fa-9730-26eae5944ee7&groupId=222861&t=1404802754447" alt="" />Pulling The Plug</strong><br />Orkut, Google’s first social networking site, will cease to exist after September, with the search giant deciding to shut down the service launched 10 years ago. The service, quite popular in Brazil and India, lost out to rivals like Facebook. “Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut’s growth, we’ve decided to bid Orkut farewell,” Google said. Orkut was launched in 2004, the same year Facebook was founded. The latter has gone on to have 1.28 billion users.<br /><br /><strong>Bitter Pill</strong><br /><img width="120" height="120" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=1ceca0ac-f255-4806-a470-a6e25db13686&groupId=222861&t=1404802779558" alt="" />Pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has confirmed the existence of a sex tape of its former head in China, the latest twist in the ongoing corruption scandal it faces in the country. The secretly filmed video of Mark Reilly and his Chinese girlfriend was emailed to several senior GSK executives. Reilly has been accused of ordering his staff to bribe hospital officials to use GSK products and has been barred from leaving China. GSK said it was continuing to cooperate with the Chinese authorities. “The issues relating to our China business are very difficult and complicated,” the firm said in a statement.<br /><strong><br />A Step Forward</strong><br />The US wants to restart a cyber-security working group that China shut down after the US indicted five Chinese military officers on charges of hacking into American companies’ computers to steal trade secrets. Assistant secretary of state Daniel Russel said the US was ready to resume talks, which he described as “useful and important”, if China was. Russel said officials would raise the matter at the annual US-China Security and Economic Dialogue in Beijing. After the indictments against the five officers were unsealed<br />in May, Beijing pulled the plug<br />on the working group.<br /><br /><strong><img width="120" height="120" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=995256e6-ad41-4bce-a4f0-336d1051ba13&groupId=222861&t=1404802804476" alt="" />Bit By Bit</strong><br />The bitcoin world kicked into high gear as the US government began auctioning some of the virtual currency seized in an FBI raid on Silk Road. The US Marshals Service auction was for 29,000 bitcoins — about $17 million at current rates, although bitcoin values have been highly volatile. Bidders had to register with a deposit of $200,000 — in cash only from a bank transfer. US authorities have another wallet of over 144,000 bitcoins, which is not currently up for sale, which probably makes Washington the largest holder of the controversial cryptocurrency.<br /><br /><strong>In The Bag</strong><br />Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim’s real estate company Inmobiliaria Carso has bought out US telephone operator AT&T’s $5.6 billion stake in telecommunications firm America Movil. The acquisition of AT&T’s shares represent 8.27 per cent of America Movil’s capital stock, according to a company statement. “Upon consummation of the transaction authorised by the board of directors, AT&T will no longer be a shareholder of America Movil,” it stated. AT&T has gradually reduced its stake in America Movil in recent years. Last year, the American group sold more than 1.5 million shares.<br /><strong><br /><img width="120" height="120" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=7d66c6bb-c5f8-44af-8df8-a89cb0b450a5&groupId=222861&t=1404802828087" alt="" />New Wings</strong><br />Fast-growing Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad is spreading its wings. It has agreed to pick up a 49 per cent stake in Italian loss-making airline Alitalia. The two parties put out a brief statement which said they had agreed to “principal terms”, without disclosing any financial details. Alitalia has made an annual profit only a few times in its 68-year history. Italy’s transport minister Maurizio Lupi said Etihad, as part of the deal, is prepared to invest up to $1.7 billion over the next four years. Etihad is expected to cut up to 2,200 jobs once it takes over.<br /><br /><strong>Call Connected</strong><br />The European Commission approved telecom giant Vodafone’s acquisition of Spanish cable firm Ono, ruling that the transaction posed little threat to competition. In a statement, it said the companies’ activities were <img width="120" height="120" align="right" src="/image/image_gallery?uuid=02deaaaf-5fe4-4dfc-a843-02bd1071d06f&groupId=222861&t=1404802857615" alt="" />“largely complementary”, with Ono’s main activity related to fixed line telecommunication services, “whereas Vodafone is active in mobile telecom”. Vodafone, flush with cash from the sale of its Verizon Wireless stake to partner Verizon for $130 billion, agreed in March to purchase Ono for $10 billion. The deal marks Vodafone’s desire to grow in Europe following last year’s €7.7-billion takeover of German cable operator Kabel Deutschland.<br /><strong><br />Teaming Up</strong><br />Daimler and Renault Nissan will invest $1.36 billion to develop small cars and build a factory in Mexico, the companies said, in a step that deepens cooperation between the Mercedes and Infiniti brands. The companies said they will build a plant with a capacity of 300,000 vehicles in Aguascalientes, Mexico. The first Infiniti cars will roll out of the new plant in 2017, followed a year later by Mercedes, with both brands planning to market those vehicles globally. Nissan, Mercedes and alliance partner Renault have shared engines, plants and vehicle underpinnings for small cars since Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche and Renault Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn forged an alliance in 2010.<br /><strong><br />Thumbs Up</strong><br />European regulators have recommended approval of a copycat insulin for diabetics, posing a threat to French drugmaker Sanofi whose top-selling Lantus is now set to face a cheaper rival in 2015. The new drug, Abasria, is made by US rival Eli Lilly, which has developed it as a so-called biosimilar version of Sanofi’s $8 billion-a-year Lantus, or insulin glargine. The green light from the European Medicine Agency for Lilly and its partner Boehringer Ingelheim marks another step forward for biosimilar medicines, which are copies of biotech drugs that promise to cut the cost of treatment. Industry analysts expect Lilly’s version of insulin glargine to be priced significantly lower than Lantus, to attract patients and healthcare providers.<br /><br />(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 28-07-2014)</div>
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