1. Yahoo is cutting 15 per cent of its workforce as the company pursues an “aggressive strategic plan” to return to profitability. The job cuts will reduce the number of its employees to about 9,000 by the end of 2016.
2. China National Chemica, a Chinese state-owned chemical maker has offered more than $43 billion (£30 billion) for Swiss pesticide giant Syngenta. The deal would be the biggest foreign purchase by a Chinese company and the second biggest takeover in the chemicals industry over the past year.
3. China’s central bank said it will allow banks to cut the minimum required mortgage down payment to 20 per cent from 25 per cent for first-home purchases to the lowest level ever as it steps up support for the property market, Bloomberg reports.
4. Universal Credit will leave millions of working families worse off, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said. The single payment - which replaces six current benefits including Jobseeker’s Allowance and Employment and Support Allowance - is being rolled out across the country.
5. Canary Wharf, the east London financial district, will have the strongest rental growth this year. The cost of leasing property will climb 12.6 per cent to £44 ($63) a square foot, according to broker Knight Frank forecasts.
6. National Australia Bank (NAB) shares fell 5.7 per cent after the lender priced shares of its Clydesdale Bank at 180p, which was at the low end of estimates.
7. Chipotle Mexican Grill said a federal criminal probe linked to a food-safety incident at a California restaurant had widened into a national investigation, sending its shares down 7 per cent in extended trading on Tuesday. The burrito chain also said sales at established restaurants plunged about 36 per cent in January, adding to a 14.6 per cent drop in the fourth quarter, its first ever decline in its 10-year existence as a public company.
8. Microsoft is paying about $250 million to acquire London-based Swiftkey, maker of a predictive keyboard powered by artificial intelligence that is installed on hundreds of millions of smartphones, Financial Times reports.
9. Amazon.com plans to open up to 400 physical bookstores, an executive of a major US mall operator said on Tuesday. The online retailer opened its first bookstore in November in its home city of Seattle.
10. Uber has a new logo and app icon. The design refresh is being debuted alongside the latest Uber app update, version 2.118.8.
