Corporate news, markets, and the economy
Australia's economy grew 0.8% in Q4 2025, beating forecasts and hitting a three-year high, but the strong result raises tricky questions about inflation and interest rates.
Andrew Marsh 
Australian shares have fallen sharply for three consecutive sessions as global markets reel from the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
Andrew Marsh 
A landmark antitrust trial against Live Nation and Ticketmaster opened in Manhattan this week, with the US Justice Department alleging the concert giant has broken the industry.
Jake Nguyen Global venture capital hit a record $189bn in February, with AI companies taking 90% of the total. Just three firms — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Waymo — captured 83% between them.
Sophia Vargas 
Intel has named Dr. Craig Barratt as its next independent board chair, replacing Frank Yeary who retires after 17 years. The change signals a strategic pivot toward engineering-led governance.
Zara Mitchell 
FCC chair Brendan Carr has signalled the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger will face minimal regulatory hurdles, even as critics raise conflict-of-interest concerns.
Tom Whitfield 
Accenture has agreed to buy Ziff Davis's Connectivity division, including Speedtest and Downdetector, for $1.2 billion in cash — an extraordinary return on a $15 million bet made in 2014.
Andrew Marsh Elliott Management has poured US$1 billion into Pinterest, triggering a share price bounce and a massive buyback programme, even as the platform battles declining ad revenue and a fresh round of layoffs.
Sophia Vargas Accenture is acquiring Ookla, the company behind Speedtest and Downdetector, from Ziff Davis for $1.2 billion, betting that network performance data will be the next essential input for enterprise AI.
Darren Ong SpaceX is targeting a June IPO at up to $1.75 trillion, potentially the world's biggest ever listing. The case for is compelling — but so are the risks.
Mitchell Tan The Bank of England has severed its relationship with Accenture on the £431m RTGS settlement system, assuring parliament it can now manage the infrastructure in-house.
Oliver Pemberton Vodafone has signed a deal with Amazon Leo to connect remote 4G and 5G base stations via satellite across Europe and Africa, with the first sites expected online in 2026.
James Callahan A €500-per-vehicle premium could close Europe's battery cost gap with China from 90% to 30% by 2030, says T&E — but Brussels must first agree on how to get there.
Yuki Tamura 
Australia's most lucrative radio partnership is over. Jackie Henderson has quit KIIS FM and Kyle Sandilands faces termination after an on-air blow-up on 20 February.
Riley Fitzgerald 
Fresh data from SEEK reveals stevedores topped Australia's salary growth chart in 2025, with a 22.4% pay rise adding $30,000 to average yearly earnings.
Zara Mitchell 
H3 Energy says a new engineering review supports commercially viable gas rates at its Warro field if dry zones are properly targeted, with appraisal now in planning.
Aisha Khoury 
A leaked video of a fierce boardroom exchange at NewSat has surfaced, capturing extraordinary verbal clashes between senior directors and prompting governance concerns.
Andrew Marsh Indian home services app Pronto has raised $25m in a Series B round, valuing the nine-month-old startup at $100m as it races rivals to formalise a vast, largely offline market.
Tom Whitfield 
How a former IT chief information officer became the southern hemisphere's only certified LEGO professional, and built a 38-person business out of coloured bricks.
Darren Ong Japan's largest cashless payments provider, PayPay, has postponed its US IPO roadshow after strikes on Iran rattled global markets, the second major setback for the $10 billion listing.
Sophia Vargas