23/09/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | SEPT 23, 2025

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Pfizer closes in on US$7.3b takeover of Metsera

Ericsson, Nokia win £2b UK deal from VodafoneThree STOCKHOLM: VodafoneThree has awarded a £2 billion (RM11.4 billion) deal to Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia to supply 5G communications equipment into the next decade, the companies said yesterday. Ericsson, the primary vendor, said in a statement its contract is worth 12.5 billion Swedish crowns (RM5.5 billion). In a separate release, Nokia did not disclose the financial details of its partnership but said the deal marks its return as Vodafone and Three’s supplier in the UK. Nokia will provide its radio access network (RAN) and core networks equipment to about 7,000 sites in the country. In June, Vodafone and CK Hutchison completed the merger of their UK operations, creating a new business called VodafoneThree and laid out plans to invest £11 billion over 10 years to build one of Europe’s most advanced 5G networks. Ericsson will introduce new 5G radio products into the VodafoneThree network, comprising artificial intelligence and energy-optimised hardware and smart antennas, aimed at providing customers in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast with significantly enhanced data speeds, the company said. The European contract is a boost for the two Nordic rivals, which are both wrestling with a general market slowdown and the impact of tariffs on their profit in the United States. – Reuters Turkiye ends some tariffs on US imports ISTANBUL: Turkiye said yesterday it had terminated retaliatory tariffs imposed in 2018 on US imports ranging from passenger cars to fruit, in a sign of warming bilateral ties as President Tayyip Erdogan travels to the United States. Erdogan is due to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week ahead of a meeting at the White House on Thursday with US President Donald Trump, who said he expected trade and military deals to be sealed during the visit. The cancellation of the tariffs, which, when they were introduced, had covered products including passenger cars, fruit, rice, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, solid fuels and chemical products, was announced in Turkiye’s Official Gazette. Since returning to the White House earlier this year, Trump has employed sweeping tariffs in a bid to reshape global trade in Washington’s favour, targeting not only traditional rivals but also long-standing allies. The United States set the tariff rate on Turkish imports at 15% in August. Ankara has not retaliated against the move. Yesterday’s cancellations apply to levies imposed in 2018 in response to US tariffs on steel and aluminium imports enacted during Trump’s first term in office. Erdogan last visited Trump at the White House in 2019, and the pair have had a checkered past. While they shared a close personal bond during Trump’s first term, it was also a period of strained bilateral relations due to disputes over Washington’s ties with Kurdish fighters in Syria and Ankara’s dealings with Moscow. Turkiye angered the Trump administration in 2019 by purchasing Russian S-400 missile defence systems. In response, Washington cancelled a planned sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkiye and ousted it from a joint production programme for the planes. – Reuters

NEW YORK: Pfizer is closing in on a potential US$7.3 billion (RM30.7 billion) takeover of weight-loss drug developer Metsera, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing unidentified sources. The US pharma firm will acquire New York City-based Metsera for US$47.50 per share in cash, with an additional US$22.50 per share contingent on the achievement of certain performance milestones, the newspaper said, adding that the announcement could come as early this week, unless deal talks fall through. Pfizer and Metsera did not immediately o Pharma giant eyes lucrative anti-obesity drug market after setbacks

A once-daily extended-release version was later tested in roughly 1,400 patients, but persistent liver safety concerns further undermined the company’s ambitions. Metsera, founded in 2022 by venture capital firm ARCH Venture and investment company Population Health Partners, is developing injectable and oral drugs to treat obesity, based on the GLP-1 mechanism and other biological targets. Its lead candidate, MET-097i, an injectable, showed an average weight loss of 11.3% in patients during a mid-stage trial, the company said earlier this year. Demand for weight-loss drugs is surging, with rivals Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk intensifying their battle for market dominance. Some experts forecast that the global weight-loss drug market could be valued at US$150 billion by the early 2030s. – Reuters

respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours. Talks to acquire Metsera come just months after the biotech firm’s blockbuster Nasdaq debut, underscoring surging investor appetite for companies developing next-generation weight-loss therapies. The US$47.50-per-share bid marks a roughly 42.5% premium over Metsera’s Friday closing price of US$33.32, which pegged its market value at about US$3.5 billion, according to LSEG data. The deal marks Pfizer’s latest bid to secure a foothold in the lucrative anti-obesity drug market, following setbacks in its own development efforts. The company had been working on an experimental weight-loss pill, danuglipron, but abandoned the project in April after a mid-stage trial revealed poor tolerability.

The US head office of TikTok in Culver City, California. – REUTERSPIC

Trump says Murdochs interested in TikTok’s US arm WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan could be among the investors who will take control of TikTok in the United States. investors he describes as “patriots”, including ally and tech giant Oracle’s boss Larry Ellison, and entrepreneur Michael Dell. long-running legal dispute over control of the media empire, cementing his eldest son Lachlan’s leadership. Lachlan, who officially took control of Fox News and News Corp as part of the deal, is Rupert’s eldest son.

On Sunday, he added more names to that list. “I hate to tell you this, but a man named Lachlan is involved. .. Lachlan Murdoch, I believe,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “And Rupert is, is probably going to be in the group. I think they’re going to be in the group. Couple of others, really great people, very prominent people.” Earlier this month, right-wing media mogul Rupert’s children reached a settlement in their

The United States has forcefully sought to take TikTok’s US operations out of the hands of Chinese parent company ByteDance for national security reasons. Since returning to power in January, Trump has repeatedly delayed implementation of the ban while a deal has been sought. He has negotiated with Beijing to sell the platform’s US operations to a consortium of

The elder Murdoch built a right-wing conservative media empire spanning the United States, Britain and Australia. On Saturday, the White House said the board of the new company that would control TikTok’s US operations would be dominated by American citizens, and that a deal could be signed “in the coming days”. – AFP