Company news in brief

AstraZeneca shares sink after Alexion buyoutShares of AstraZeneca fell 8% early yesterday, hit by doubts about the British firm's strategy and speculation of a rival bid after it announced the US$39 billion purchase of Alexion Pharmaceuticals over the weekend.Chief executive officer Pascal Soriot had told reporters on Saturday that the deal, a bet on rare-disease and immunology drugs, was the result of exclusive talks and no competitive bidder was involved.The move also helps AstraZeneca, which is also working on a Covid-19 vaccine, diversify from its fast-growing cancer business. – Nampa/ReutersPfizer's US vaccine authorisation a credit positiveRating agency Moody's Investors Service said on Sunday that Pfizer Inc's US Covid-19 vaccine authorisation is credit positive."The approval is credit positive because of incremental profit and cash flow from sales of the vaccine," Moody's said. "The revenue and profit opportunities for Pfizer are significant because it has priced the vaccine at a profit."The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in a large clinical trial was 95% effective in preventing illness. US regulators late on Friday authorised emergency use of the vaccine, following similar moves by the UK and Canada. – Nampa/ReutersVodafone towers spinoff eyes growthThe telecoms infrastructure business spun out by Britain's Vodafone is ready to join the deal-making fray in Europe but even with its existing asset base sees a decade of promising growth ahead, its CEO told Reuters.Vantage Towers, which owns 68 000 masts across nine European countries, is eyeing a spring listing in Frankfurt that would arm CEO Vivek Badrinath with the firepower to pay for takeovers with its own shares.Badrinath said his primary focus would be to strengthen Vantage's position in existing markets. But the former Orange executive also acknowledged interest expressed by the French operator in possible towers cooperation.Europe lagged the United States by 20 years in reshaping its industry to split infrastructure from mobile operators, with just 42% of its towers run by specialist companies compared to 90% in the United States."There is 10 years of growth ahead," Badrinath said. "So it's a good time to build, structure, strengthen and invest." – Nampa/ReutersGoogle delays return to officeAlphabet Inc's Google will allow its employees to work from home until September next year, extending the return to the office by a few months, the New York Times reported yesterday.The company was also testing the idea of a "flexible workweek" once it is safe to return to the office, chief executive officer Sundar Pichai told the company's staff in an email on Sunday, according to the report.As part of the plan, Google's employees would be expected to work at least three days a week in the office while working from home the other days, the newspaper report said."We are testing a hypothesis that a flexible work model will lead to greater productivity, collaboration, and well-being," Pichai wrote in the email.Google was one of the first companies to ask its employees to work from home due to the pandemic. It has previously delayed the timing by when the employees should return to the office from January next year to July. – Nampa/ReutersReddit to buy TikTok rival DubsmashSocial network firm Reddit said on Sunday it would buy short-video platform Dubsmash, becoming the latest company to expand in a space dominated by Chinese-owned TikTok.The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a spokeswoman for Reddit said the acquisition was based on a combination of cash and stock.The success of ByteDance's TikTok has prompted many social media companies to add short-video services to their platforms, with Snapchat Inc rolling out "Spotlight" in November and Facebook Inc launching "Instagram Reels" earlier this year.Reddit said in a blog post that the deal would give its users, who can already upload and stream videos, access to Dubsmash's editing and short-video creation tools.The San Francisco-based company added that Dubsmash would maintain its own platform and brand. – Nampa/Reuters

Company news in brief

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Republikein 2026-01-05

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Company news in brief

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