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VIENNA — The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed with Russia and other oil-producing allies on Saturday to raise output from July, with Saudi Arabia pledging a “measurable” supply boost but giving no specific numbers.

OPEC had announced an OPEC-only production agreement on Friday, also without clear output targets. Benchmark Brent oil rose by $2.5 or 3.4 per cent on the day to $75.55 a barrel.

On Saturday, non-OPEC oil producers agreed to participate in the pact but a communique issued after their talks with the Vienna-based group provided no concrete numbers amid deep disagreements between OPEC arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.

US President Donald Trump was among those wondering how much more oil OPEC would deliver. “Hope OPEC will increase output substantially. Need to keep prices down!” Trump wrote on Twitter after OPEC announced its Friday decision.

The United States, China and India had urged oil producers to release more supply to prevent an oil deficit that could undermine global economic growth. 

OPEC and non-OPEC said in their statement that they would raise supply by returning to 100 per cent compliance with previously agreed output cuts, after months of overproduction. 

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih said OPEC and non-OPEC combined would pump roughly an extra 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in coming months, equal to 1 per cent of global supply.

Top global exporter Saudi Arabia will increase output by hundreds of thousands of barrels, he said, with exact figures to be decided later. 

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said his country would add 200,000bpd in the second half of this year.

Asked to what extent the decision to increase supply had been driven by pressure from Trump, Novak said: “It is obvious that we are not being driven by Tweets but base our actions on deep market analysis.”

Iran, Saudi disagreement 

Iran, OPEC’s third-largest producer, had demanded OPEC reject calls from Trump for an increase in oil supply, arguing that he had contributed to a recent rise in prices by imposing sanctions on Iran and fellow member Venezuela.

Trump slapped fresh sanctions on Tehran in May and market watchers expect Iran’s output to drop by a third by the end of 2018. That means the country has little to gain from a deal to raise output, unlike Saudi Arabia.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the real increase could amount to as little as 500,000bpd because Saudi Arabia would not be allowed to pump more on behalf of Venezuela, where output has collapsed in recent months.

“Each country which has produced less [than its allocation] can produce more. Those which cannot, will not... This means that Saudi Arabia can increase its production by less than 100,000bpd,” Zanganeh told Argus Media.

But Falih said pro-rata quota reallocations did not have to be strict, meaning Saudi wanted to fill the gaps left by others.

“Some of the countries... are not going to be able to produce, so the others will. And that implies there will be indirectly a reallocation,” Falih said.

He also said OPEC could hold an extraordinary meeting before its next formal talks due on December 3 or adjust deliveries in September, when its monitoring committee meets, if global oil supply fell further because of sanctions on Iran.

OPEC and its allies have since last year been participating in a pact to cut output by 1.8 million bpd. The measure had helped rebalance the market in the past 18 months and lifted oil to around $75 per barrel from as low as $27 in 2016.

But unexpected outages in Venezuela, Libya and Angola have effectively brought supply cuts to around 2.8 million bpd in recent months. 

Falih has warned the world could face a supply deficit of up to 1.8 million bpd in the second half of 2018. 

“Both Saudi and Iran can show that they won,” an OPEC delegate said. 

“Zanganeh can go back to his country and say ‘I won’, because we are keeping the original agreement unchanged. Falih can go back and say ‘we will be able to raise production to meet market needs’.”

The United States, which rivals Russia and Saudi Arabia for the position of world No.1 oil producer, is not participating in the supply pact.

HONG KONG — Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi kicked off its initial public offering on Thursday but the firm is likely to pull in about $6.1 billion, far less than originally expected, with investors having mixed views about its main business.

Xiaomi had hoped to raise $10 billion with the Hong Kong IPO, making it the biggest since Alibaba's $25 billion New York debut in 2014 and valuing the company at about $100 billion.

However, the firm is offering 2.18 billion shares at HK$17-HK$22 a piece, according to Bloomberg News, which values it at about $53.9-$69.8 billion.

Xiaomi had hoped to be the first company to list shares in Hong Kong at the same time as launching new Chinese Depository Receipts (CDRs) in Shanghai under new rules announced in April by mainland authorities to open up markets in the world's number two economy.

But on Tuesday it put off its decision on listing the CDRs until it completes its IPO in Hong Kong. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said it has cancelled a listing review originally scheduled for June 19.

This delay, as well as differing market views about Xiaomi's business model, were also among reasons for the lower valuation.

CEO Lei Jun claimed it was an Internet services company making money via online games and advertisements despite 70 per cent of its revenues coming from selling hardware, particularly smartphones.

The firm, which mainly sells cheap but high-quality smartphones in China, is looking to push into Europe — recently opening its first flagship store in Paris — as the home market reaches saturation point.

China Mobile Ltd and US wireless-chip giant Qualcomm are among the cornerstone investors and it is expected to list on July 9.

Chinese authorities devised the CDR programme, under which homegrown companies listed abroad can simultaneously list at home, after watching technology heavyweights Alibaba and Baidu list on Wall Street.

The objectives of the plan include helping to develop China's still relatively immature and volatile share markets while allowing domestic investors to invest in the country's big tech champions.

Alibaba and Hong Kong-listed Tencent have expressed an interest in the plan.

Xiaomi shipped 28 million smartphones worldwide from January to March, an 88- per cent surge year-on-year.

That was fourth in the world after Samsung, Apple and China's Huawei, according to figures from the International Data Corporation.

VIENNA — The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cartel meets on Friday to decide output policy amid calls from major consumers such as the United States and China to cool down oil prices and support the global economy by producing more crude.

Iran signalled on Wednesday it could compromise on a small increase in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil output when the group meets this week.

In tandem, Saudi Arabia scrambled to convince fellow members of the need for a larger rise in production.

On Tuesday, Iran said OPEC was unlikely to reach a deal, setting the stage for a clash with kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-member Russia, which are pushing to raise production steeply from July to meet growing global demand.

But on Wednesday, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said OPEC members that had overdelivered on cuts in recent months should comply with agreed quotas.

That would effectively mean a modest boost from producers such as Saudi Arabia that have been cutting more deeply than planned despite production outages in Venezuela and Libya. 

"OPEC could keep the same deal with compliance going back to 100 per cent," said an OPEC source who is aware of Iran's stance.

OPEC Secretar General Mohammad Barkindo said he was confident there would be a deal when the producer group meets in Vienna on Friday.

Russia has proposed OPEC and non-OPEC producers raise output by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd), effectively wiping out existing production cuts of 1.8 million bpd that have helped rebalance the market in the past 18 months and lifted oil to $75 per barrel. Oil traded as low as $27 in 2016.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih also said on Wednesday that the market demanded more oil in the second half of this year and that OPEC was moving towards "a good decision". 

Ecuador said OPEC and its allies could agree to a compromise increase in output of around 0.5-0.6 million bpd.

A decision to increase output could be taken even with Iran refusing to sign up, as has happened before in OPEC.

Addressing over-compliance 

Iran has so far been the main barrier to a deal, with Zanganeh saying OPEC should not yield to pressure from US President Donald Trump to raise output.

He said Trump had contributed to the rise in prices by imposing sanctions on OPEC members Iran and Venezuela, which will likely lead to lower exports.

Zanganeh said he would leave Vienna on Friday even before OPEC holds talks with non-OPEC producers the next day, but efforts were underway on Wednesday to convince Iran to participate in a deal.

Sources said Saudi Arabia did not want to be seen as putting too much pressure on Iran and hence Russia was instead trying to convince Tehran.

Zanganeh was due to attend a ministerial committee on Thursday, two sources said. Iran is usually not part of the committee, which includes Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Algeria and Venezuela.

Iraq and Venezuela have also opposed a relaxation of production cuts, fearing a slump in prices.

Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar Al Luaibi said on Wednesday he hoped there would be agreement when OPEC meets but added: "The oil market has not reached the level of stabilisation".

Gulf producers usually aligned with Saudi Arabia — the UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain — have also cautioned against a large output increase and signalled they have been rattled by Riyadh's close coordination with Russia, sources have said.

Gulf oil producers' views still differed on Wednesday on how much to increase production and whether such a move should be gradual, sources said.

Nevertheless, they tried to bring Iran on board for a deal, with ministers from the UAE, Kuwait and Oman meeting Zanganeh on Wednesday.

Oman's oil minister, Mohammed Bin Hamad Al Rumhy, said he believed Iran would agree to an output increase on Friday. He said the meeting would tackle over-compliance with oil output cuts and that Iran was "very cooperative".

NEW YORK — The dollar, yen and Swiss franc rose on Tuesday as traders piled into perceived less risky currencies after US President Donald Trump threatened to slap more tariffs on China, fanning a trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies.

Trump said he would impose a 10 per cent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods, following levies on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports enacted last week.

China's commerce ministry warned on Tuesday that Beijing would fight back firmly with "qualitative" and "quantitative" measures if the United States implements more tariffs. 

Fears of a trade war that could harm global growth spurred sales of the Chinese yuan, which fell to a five-month trough in the offshore market, as well as commodity-linked and emerging market currencies.

Worries about a growing US-China trade spat also sparked a selloff in stock markets around the world.

"A pending trade war and a sell-off in global equities is benefiting the yen and dollar," said John Doyle, vice president of dealing and trading at Tempus Inc. in Washington. "Emerging market currencies, especially the South African rand, are taking the bulk of the heat."

The index that tracks the greenback against the euro, yen, sterling and three other currencies reached 95.296, the highest since last July. It was last up 0.35 per cent at 95.133.

The yen climbed 0.5 per cent at 109.95 yen per dollar, while it advanced 1 per cent versus the euro to 127.09 yen, its strongest in over two weeks.

The Swiss franc increased 0.6 per cent against the euro at 1.1495 franc and was marginally higher versus the greenback at 0.9948 franc.

Among the day's losers, the yuan weakened to 6.491 to the dollar in the offshore market, the lowest in five months.

"Of course a far-reaching trade war would be detrimental for everyone in the end, but mainly the countries whose growth heavily depends on foreign trade," said Commerzbank Currency Strategist Thu Lan Nguyen in Frankfurt. 

The Australian dollar sagged to a one-year low of $0.73475 as the trade tension hurt base metal prices.

The Canadian dollar fell to a one-year low of C$1.3291 on worries about Canada's own trade feud with the United States.

In emerging markets, the South African rand tumbled to its weakest level in nearly seven months at 13.7895 rand per dollar.

In addition to trade concerns, the euro slumped to a two-week low of $1.1528 after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi called for a patient approach to European monetary policy at a forum in Portugal. 

The single currency was also under pressure as German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies may defy her by implementing a plan to limit immigration at the German border.

FRANKFURT AM MAIN — Audi Chief Executive Rupert Stadler was arrested on Monday in connection with parent company Volkswagen’s (VW) “dieselgate” emissions cheating scandal, with prosecutors saying they feared he might try to suppress evidence.

The dramatic development comes a week after Munich prosecutors raided Stadler’s home after charging him with fraud and falsifying documents that allowed diesel vehicles equipped with cheating software to be sold to European customers.

Four police officers detained the Audi boss at his home at between 6 and 7am, a spokesman for Munich prosecutors told AFP, saying that the arrest was justified as he is suspected of “seeking to influence witnesses or other suspects”.

Stadler has denied the accusations and has said he is ready to be interrogated from Wednesday, added the spokesman.

Hours after the arrest, the VW group’s management named Dutchman Bram Schot, who joined VW in 2011, to take over from Stadler as interim CEO.

Stadler is the most senior executive yet to be detained in the dieselgate crisis, which started when the VW group admitted in 2015 to installing so-called “defeat devices” in some 11 million diesels worldwide that made them seem less polluting in lab tests than they actually were on the road.

The affected vehicles involved VW’s own-brand cars, but also those made by Audi, Porsche, Skoda and Seat.

VW’s luxury subsidiary Audi has long faced suspicions that its engineers helped create the software used in the scam.

Audi’s former head of engine development, Wolfgang Hatz, was taken into custody in Germany in September 2017 and remains behind bars.

A manager at Porsche was also detained in April. He was identified by German media as Joerg Kerner, an engineer in charge of Porsche’s engine division who was working at Audi when the diesel scandal broke.

Earlier this month, German authorities ordered the recall of some 60,000 Audi A6 and A7 cars across Europe to remove illegal emissions control software — using a different technique however than the one at the heart of dieselgate.

“Audi needs a new start,” said auto industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of the CAR research centre.

Stadler, 55, who joined Audi in 1990 and has been its CEO since 2007, has enjoyed the full backing of VW’s top brass so far.

But Dudenhoeffer said that may change, given the “very serious” allegations against him.

Stadler’s arrest is the latest blow to the VW group, which has struggled to shake off the dieselgate crisis and continues to face a litany of investigations at home and abroad.

Two former VW chief executives — Martin Winterkorn and his successor Matthias Mueller — have both landed in the sights of German prosecutors.

They are suspected of knowing earlier than they have admitted about the cheating, meaning they may have failed in their duty to inform investors in the car giant about the financial risks.

US prosecutors also indicted Winterkorn last month, saying he knew of the company’s emissions cheating as early as May 2014 but decided to continue.

Current boss Herbert Diess has also been accused of knowing about the scam before it became public — an allegation rejected by the firm last month.

The diesel scandal has so far cost the VW group more than 25 billion euros ($29 billion) in buybacks, fines and compensation, mainly in the United States where the cheating scam was first uncovered.

But pressure has been mounting on the auto giant to make amends in Europe, too.

Just last week, VW agreed to pay a 1-billion-euro fine to settle a probe by German prosecutors.

In doing so, VW said it admitted its “responsibility for the diesel crisis”.

Despite the controversy, the VW group last year reported global sales of 10.7 million vehicles — a new record.

But the saga has cast a wider pall over Germany’s vaunted car industry, with suspicions of emissions manipulation spreading to rivals BMW and Mercedes-owned Daimler.

To date, just two people have been convicted over “dieselgate”, both in the US.

Former VW executive Oliver Schmidt is serving a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and violating the US Clean Air Act.

VW Engineer James Liang, who cooperated with investigators, was handed 40 months in jail last year.

Google will invest $550 million in Chinese e-commerce powerhouse JD.com, part of the US Internet giant's efforts to expand its presence in fast-growing Asian markets and battle rivals, including Amazon.com.

The two companies described the investment announced on Monday as one piece of a broader partnership that will include the promotion of JD.com products on Google's shopping service. This could help JD.com expand beyond its base in China and Southeast Asia and establish a meaningful presence in US and European markets.

JD.com's US-listed shares rose 1.2 per cent to $44.10 on the Nasdaq on Monday.

Company officials said the agreement initially would not involve any major new Google initiatives in China, where the company's main services are blocked over its refusal to censor search results in line with local laws.

JD.com's investors include Chinese social media powerhouse Tencent Holdings Ltd. the arch-rival of Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Walmart Inc.

"Given Walmart also has a close relationship with JD, I see [the investment] as further tightening of the Google/Walmart alliance, which seems focused on building a third force in ecommerce beyond Amazon and Alibaba," said Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell.

Google is stepping up its investments across Asia, where a rapidly growing middle class and a lack of infrastructure in retail, finance and other areas have made it a battleground for US and Chinese Internet giants. Google recently took a stake in Indonesian ride-hailing firm Go-Jek, and sources have told Reuters that it may also invest in Indian e-commerce upstart Flipkart.

Google declined to comment on the rumoured Flipkart deal. The JD.com investment is being made by the operating unit of Google rather than one of parent company Alphabet's investment vehicles.

Google will get 27.1 million newly issued JD.com Class A ordinary shares as part of the deal. This will give them less than a 1 per cent stake in JD, a spokesman for JD said.

For JD.com, the Google deal shows its determination to build a set of global alliances as it seeks to counter Alibaba, which has been more focused on forging domestic retail tie-ups. Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. which is making big Internet investments around the globe, is a major investor in Alibaba.

Morningstar analyst Chelsey Tam said that the investment will help JD.com expand into developed markets such as US and Europe, where it has lesser exposure compared to Google.

"This partnership with Google opens up a broad range of possibilities to offer a superior retail experience to consumers throughout the world," said Jianwen Liao, JD.com's chief strategy officer, in a statement.

Company officials said the deal would marry Google's market reach and strength in analytics with JD.com's expertise in logistics and inventory management.

The investment may give Google access to more consumer data, which can be used to boost usage of Google Shopping, said Morningstar analyst Ali Mogharabi.

ERBIL, Iraq — Iraq's only Kurdish airline launched on Monday with a flight to Sweden, after years of delays because of the offensive by the terror group Daesh in the country. 

Officials hope Fly Erbil's take-off is a sign of changing fortunes in the autonomous region, which has suffered from the militants onslaught and a failed independence bid.

Daesh delayed our project “but today, we mark real progress", said the airline's chief executive, Laund Sheikh Mamundi, explaining the three-year delay since Fly Erbil first announced its launch.

The airline currently has three planes and hopes to increase its fleet to ten, Administrative Director Ahmad Jamal told AFP. 

The company advertises flights to five European countries including Germany and the UK, targeting destinations with large Iraqi communities and investors who operate in Iraq, Jamal said.

Dressed in a navy blue uniform with golden buttons to match the airline's logo, flight attendant Nisrine Rachid was thrilled the crew would be working in the Kurdish language. 

"I think that makes them happy and we are delighted to serve them in Kurdish," she said, ahead of the Boeing jet departing from Erbil airport.

Iraqi Kurdistan benefitted from an economic boom after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, while the rest of the country descended into violence. 

But the lightning offensive of Daesh in 2014 — with the militants coming to within around 40 kilometres of Erbil — led to a significant fall in investments. 

According to a 2015 World Bank study, the economy of Iraqi Kurdistan was hit by the influx of people fleeing violence from within Iraq and Syria.

The region's poverty rate more than doubled from 3.5 per cent to 8.1 per cent, the World Bank said.

Last year, a controversial referendum on Kurdish independence led to a series of retaliatory measures by Baghdad which ruled the vote illegal. 

Disputed areas and their oil fields were retaken by the central government — a massive hit for the region — while a nearly six-month air blockade was imposed on Erbil and Sulaimaniyah airports. 

Kurdistan has relied on its oil wealth to pay back its debts, having borrowed more than $3 billion over three years and paying up with monthly installments of oil barrels.

RIGA/FRANKFURT — The European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Thursday it would wrap up its unprecedented bond purchase scheme by the close of the year, its biggest step in dismantling crisis-era stimulus a decade after the start of the eurozone’s economic downturn. 

But in a balanced announcement reflecting the uncertainties hanging over the region’s economy, it also signalled the move would not mean a rapid policy tightening by adding that interest rates would stay at record lows “at least through the summer of 2019 and in any case for as long as necessary”.

The new rates guidance prompted the euro to reverse initial gains to fall over 1 per cent to $1.1670, close to its biggest one-day loss since October. Markets had been anticipating a 10-basis-point hike in the ECB’s benchmark deposit rate — currently at -0.4 per cent — by June 2019. 

ECB President Mario Draghi declined to give more detail about the timing of rate moves in a news conference after the policy meeting, this time held away from the bank’s Frankfurt headquarters in the Latvian capital Riga.

“We didn’t discuss when to raise rates,” he said.

“This decision has been taken in the presence of a strong economy with increasing uncertainty,” he said of a political landscape characterised notably by rising trade tensions between the United States, Europe and China. 

The ECB also downgraded its eurozone growth forecast for this year to 2.1 percent from 2.4 per cent previously, while upgrading its inflation forecast to 1.7 per cent from 1.4 per cent, largely as a result of rising oil prices.

“This is a very fine balance — a bit more hawkish on QE, but rather dovish on rates — that Mario Draghi hopes will keep the markets on an even keel and avoid a taper tantrum,” said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst for Markets.com.

Though full policy normalisation will take years, investors are already braced for the end of easy money from the world’s central banks. A hawkish US Federal Reserve dropped a crisis-era stimulus pledge on Wednesday while the ECB had already begun rolling back support after a five-year run of economic growth.

The ECB said the monthly pace of its net asset purchases would be halved to 15 billion euros from September until the end of December 2018, at which point purchases would end.

By putting a specific end-date on its stimulus, the ECB is taking a more decisive step than when the US Federal Reserve started its own taper in December 2013. Then, it did not commit to a specific end or any subsequent steps.

The biggest complication could be a murky economic outlook, muddied by the developing trade war, a populist challenge from Italy’s new government and softening export demand. 

But ECB policymakers have long argued that their mandate is to bring inflation back to target, not to prop up growth or fight off market turbulence in any particular country. 

Italian bond yields rose sharply this month as a new government of anti-establishment parties promised higher spending. That threatens a clash with Brussels, which is pushing Rome to cut the eurozone’s second-biggest debt pile. 

A broader slowdown could make it harder for the ECB to cut support if lower growth eases pressure on inflation, a threat to the bank’s credibility as it has missed its inflation target of almost 2 per cent for over five years.

Inflation

While inflation has remained weak, higher oil prices, increasingly evident wage pressures and record employment suggest that prices will be moving up in the coming years, even if more slowly than the ECB had originally hoped. 

ECB Chief Economist Peter Praet, a Draghi ally and one of the most dovish members of the rate-setting governing council, recently argued that progress has been made on the inflation criteria, a strong hint that stimulus would be pared back.

The euro’s 5 per cent fall against the dollar since April is also helping the ECB as the weaker currency is increasing the cost of imports and boosting inflation. While a rebound is likely, the US Federal Reserve’s tightening stance will limit the potential for a big rise in the euro.

WASHINGTON — A US federal judge on Tuesday approved the $85 billion merger of wireless and broadband giant AT&T with media-entertainment conglomerate Time Warner, delivering a rebuke to Donald Trump's administration in its first major antitrust court case.

US District Judge Richard Leon said the government had failed to meet its burden of proof that the tie-up between the largest US pay-TV operator and the media entertainment giant would harm competition.

The case had been closely watched as setting a benchmark for other big corporate mergers, especially in the media and communications sector.

Leon said the case fell short on all counts and warned the government against seeking to hold up the deal with an appeal, saying that would cause "irreparable" harm to the two companies whose tie-up has been delayed for a year and a half.

"There would be no irreparable harm to the government [with a delay], only to the companies," Leon told the packed courtroom in an unusual session to announce his opinion.

"The government has taken its best shot and lost."

Leon's 172-page ruling was a total victory for the companies. It said the government failed to back up its three theories of harm to consumers from the mega-merger.

He maintained that the government's claim that pay TV costs would rise from the tie-up was based on "speculative" logic and that its study from an expert witness was contradicted by other evidence from the government.

'Sound and proper' repudiation 

Daniel Petrocelli, who led the legal team for the two companies, told reporters outside the courthouse that the decision marked a "sound and proper" repudiation of the government's case.

"We're disappointed that it has taken 18 months to get here but we're relieved that it's finally behind us," he said.

He said the ruling "stands as a testament to the wisdom of the combination of these two great companies and how it will benefit consumers for generations to come”.

AT&T General Counsel David McAtee said in a statement he was pleased with the outcome and expected the deal would be closed by June 20.

The deal brings together AT&T's wireless and broadband networks and its DirecTV subscription service with the media assets of Time Warner, which include CNN and other Turner cable channels, Cartoon Network, premium channel HBO and the Warner Bros studios.

Makan Delrahim, head of the Justice Department's antitrust division, said the government was considering its next steps.

"We are disappointed with the court's decision today," he said.

"We continue to believe that the pay-TV market will be less competitive and less innovative as a result of the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner."

John Bergmayer of the consumer group Public Knowledge said he expected the government would appeal.

"In the meantime, not only may consumers be harmed directly by the anticompetitive harms that this merger will cause, such as higher bills and fewer choices of programming and provider, but also by the many other mergers it will encourage," Bergmayer said.

Some analysts say the court approval offers an effective green light to other major deals, including the Walt Disney offer to buy key film and television assets of 21st Century Fox and the T-Mobile/Sprint agreement in wireless.

"Due to AT&T already owning Direct TV and having U-verse, it has been using a lot of Time Warner content for some time. Thus, I don't think the integration will be as difficult as it first appears," said Morningstar analyst Allan Nichols.

But Rebecca Lieb of Kaleido Insights warned that mergers like these are usually "very difficult" to implement.

"Merging content distribution with creation is easier said than done, particularly on a scale that encompasses all media," she added.

New services, packages 

AT&T and Time Warner argue they need more scale to compete with online rivals like Netflix and Amazon and with Silicon Valley giants like Google, Facebook and Apple, which are expanding in the rapidly evolving sector.

Independent media analyst Alan Wolk said the clear approval opens the door to AT&T offering new kinds of services and packages that can tie into 5G, or fifth-generation wireless networks.

"Imagine AT&T giving free CNN and free HBO to every AT&T wireless subscriber," Wolk said.

Time Warner gets better viewership data to more effectively compete against online platforms like Netflix, which "will make it easier for them to better target ads", Wolk added.

AMMAN — Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder and chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organisation, has received an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from the Lebanese American University (LAU) for his leading role in the development of the business sector globally, according to a statement received by The Jordan times on Wednesday.

He was awarded the honorary doctorate during the LAU 93rd Annual Commencement Exercises held in Beirut.

Abu-Ghazaleh thanked LAU's President Joseph G. Jabbra for this honour, and recalled his own graduation ceremony in the 60s. He spoke about his personal experience and asked LAU graduates and students to remember the "prescription for success".

"Just like your non-stop heart, rest is bad for your health. At school, you learn lessons and sit for exams, at the workplace you face exams and learn from them," he noted.