Earnings season. Cisco, CVS Health, Kering, Heineken, Ahold Delhaize, Akzo Nobel, Amundi are among companies reporting their earnings today.

ThyssenKrupp in sight. A consortium of Blackstone and Carlyle in Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has submitted a bid of approximately €16 billion for ThyssenKrupp's elevator business, Reuters reports.

Disappointing profits. Lyft said yesterday that it expects its growth to slow this year and confirmed its forecast to reach profitability only at the end of 2021. This is despite a 68% year-over-year increase in revenues to $3.6 billion and improved margins. However, Uber's competitor in the VTC market still posted a loss of $2.6 billion for the year.

Too slow progress. Kering said Wednesday it was disappointed by the slow progress in the development of cosmetic products under the license granted to the American group Coty. Meanwhile, Kering published its results for the 2019 financial year, which resulted in a recurring net profit of €3.2 billion, up 15.1%. Annual organic growth came to 13.3%, while the dividend was increased by 10% to EUR 11.50.

Low tide. Rolls-Royce is open to discussion on the medium-sized aircraft project that Boeing is seeking to develop to counter the Airbus A321 XLR. The American industrialist is still in turmoil because of the B737 MAX and the way the business has been handled. For the first time since the 1960s, it had no monthly orders in January. To get back on track, it will have to launch new projects.

Back in the race. Samsung unveiled four new smartphones, including a folding one, to take back the leadership from Apple. "Prices are going down, experiences are getting better, that's what it takes to get back in the race, I don't think Apple will have something similar for another 3 to 5 years," says Moore Insight & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead.

Smooth succession. Jean-François van Boxmeer, Heineken's CEO for 15 years, will hand over in June to Dolf van den Brink, who heads the Asia-Pacific region. The Belgian CEO had been at the helm for 15 years. His successor has 22 years of experience in the company. "The company is in good hands to continue to grow," says the future ex-boss.

Larger scope. The latest news is that US federal regulators have reportedly extended their wide-ranging investigation of technology giants such as Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook or Amazon.com and their policy of acquiring their small competitors to make them disappear to help them grow. The FTC is interested in transactions concluded between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019.

In other news. Nissan is claiming the equivalent of €83 million from Carlos Ghosn. Vale's iron production falls by 21.5% in 2019, notably due to the dam disaster in Brazil. Stadler Rail has been awarded a contract worth 884 MCHF for 42 Metro trains to Newcastle, in the north-east of England. In Japan, Softbank is booming after the T-Mobile US / Sprint merger in the US market. BP Plc wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.