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  PARIS (Reuters) - Vivendi said on Saturday it planned to distribute 60% of Universal Music’s capital to investors, subject to shareholder approval, and aimed to list its most-prized asset, home to singers such as Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, by the end of the year. The plan to list Universal represents part of a process launched by Vivendi’s top shareholder French billionaire Vincent Bollore to cash in on the music industry’s revival. “Vivendi’s leading institutional shareholders have been pressing for a number of years for a split or the distribution of Universal Music Group (UMG) to reduce Vivendi’s conglomerate discount,” Vivendi said in a statement. The French conglomerate said the distribution would take the form of a special dividend. UMG, a holding company currently being incorporated in the Netherlands, will apply for a listing on Euronext in Amsterdam. The transaction has received a favorable response from the consortium led by China’s tech group Tencent, which now contro...

  BEIJING (Reuters) - Tesla Inc is searching for a design director in China, part of efforts to open a “full-function” studio in Shanghai or Beijing and design electric cars tailored to Chinese consumer tastes, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The U.S. carmaker’s human resources managers, as well as several headhunters, have been trawling the industry over the past four months, the sources said. They are looking for “bi-cultural” candidates with 20 or more years of experience who are familiar with Chinese tastes and can bridge the gaps between China and the United States, they added. Some candidates have been interviewed by Tesla’s global design chief Franz von Holzhausen, according to the people, though it was not clear how many potential candidates had been approached by the company and recruiters. All three sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity and confidential nature of the matter. China is the world’s biggest auto mark...

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top officials breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday that Joe Biden will be taking over as president of the United States, but they warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump and that trans-Atlantic ties will be different in the future. “This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, hailing Biden’s arrival as “resounding proof that, once again after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.” “The United States are back, and Europe stands ready to reconnect with an old and trusted partner to breathe new life into our cherished alliance,” she told EU lawmakers, hours before Biden was to be sworn in at his inauguration ceremony in Washington. European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs summits between the EU’s 27 heads of state and government, said that trans-Atlantic relations have “greatly suffered in the last four year...

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  These tech funds belong in your portfolio. The growth in technology stocks continues as companies across many sectors use more data and store it in the cloud, generating higher profit margins and returns for investors. The tech sector is the most sensitive sector to gross domestic product growth, gaining 7.1% on average for every 1% GDP growth in the past 10 years, says Jodie Gunzberg, managing director, chief institutional investment strategist at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Another distinguishing characteristic of the tech industry is that it generates a relatively high percentage of revenues from overseas at nearly 60%, she says. Here are seven tech exchange-traded funds to add to your portfolio. Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (ticker: XLK) The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund is a broadly diversified large-cap ETF that tracks the Technology Select Sector Index. The top three holdings are Apple (AAPL), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Nvidia (NVDA). "With ...

INVESTING IN STOCKS HAS  become increasingly more accessible with the emergence of fintech simplifying the process by allowing beginners to open an account through a website or mobile app. Owning a stock represents your stake in a company as a common shareholder. Common stocks allow shareholders to vote on company issues, with most companies granting one vote per share. Several companies also offer stockholders dividend payouts. These payouts typically change based on the company's profitability. Investors with equity exposure in their portfolio allow for the potential of asset appreciation. When your stocks increase in value, you capture market gains. Beginning investors should note there are two ways to secure profits from stock investing: dividend payments and selling shares when their market value goes up. How to Invest In Stocks Using Robo Advisors Investing in stocks can be done in many ways. To take the do-it-yourself approach and manage your own investments, ...