:00:00. > :00:00.Bay Buccaneers. Those are some of the headlines from BBC News. Now for
:00:00. > :00:23.the latest financial news. Billy Davies. Apple to buy the
:00:24. > :00:30.headphone Company in its biggest ever takeover. Plus, back in the
:00:31. > :00:34.USSR. Vladimir Putin signed up his neighbours to an economic union.
:00:35. > :00:45.They will have to do without Ukraine.
:00:46. > :00:52.Welcome to World Business Report. In a moment, Africa's biggest oil
:00:53. > :00:56.reserves, Libya tries to coax back foreign investment among a worsening
:00:57. > :00:59.security situation. We look huge deal first of two names in the music
:01:00. > :01:07.industry that are about to be get richer. On the left is Dr Dre. On
:01:08. > :01:12.the right is the producer of stars from Bruce Springsteen to Lady
:01:13. > :01:17.Gaga. These two co` founded the headphone Company, Beats which Apple
:01:18. > :01:22.has confirmed it is buying into a deal worth $3 billion. They will
:01:23. > :01:25.join the management team in what is the tech giant's biggest ever
:01:26. > :01:31.takeover. From New York, are at Chris Burdon report. Even before the
:01:32. > :01:37.deal was done, the cofounders seen here in the background boasted about
:01:38. > :01:45.becoming billionaires. You are back you need to update the Forbes list!
:01:46. > :01:52.Beats would be a billionaire just yet. His net worth will be around
:01:53. > :01:59.$800 million. Still, that is a huge sum for him and for Apple. This is a
:02:00. > :02:03.tax's the acquisition yet. It is paying $3 billion to buy Beats, the
:02:04. > :02:10.headphone maker and streaming music service. Beats is the coolest thing
:02:11. > :02:15.at the moment. They have the coolest executives and a great brand name.
:02:16. > :02:20.They have a rapidly rolling consumer base before hardware and the digital
:02:21. > :02:24.age and service. Apple is deftly grabbing onto their coattails and
:02:25. > :02:28.trying to keep their own brand lost. Beats is best known for headphones
:02:29. > :02:34.for Apple, the real prize is the music streaming service. For the
:02:35. > :02:39.past decade, iTunes has dominated digital music. At that was in the
:02:40. > :02:47.download era. These days, it is all about streaming. Even though Apple
:02:48. > :02:51.broke into streaming last the table with iTunes Radio, the company
:02:52. > :02:57.missed a beat and is now playing catch up. Apple hopes to make sweet
:02:58. > :03:02.music with Beats did it over pay? With $150 billion in cash it is a
:03:03. > :03:13.risk Apple can easily afford. The tech giant would properly argued you
:03:14. > :03:21.can't put a price on cool. Now to the cover capital. V Putin is
:03:22. > :03:26.due to sign a treaty to create the Eurasian economic union. Here are
:03:27. > :03:31.the leaders at talks last month. Ukraine was to be a key member but
:03:32. > :03:36.pulled out plans to join after it pro`Russian president was ousted.
:03:37. > :03:39.Critics see the deal as part of a bigger plan to recreate the Soviet
:03:40. > :03:48.empire, something Vladimir Putin has denied. Good to talk to you. Let's
:03:49. > :03:54.start of talking about the deal. To me, it seems much more political
:03:55. > :03:58.than economic. Is this the case that we are seeing Vladimir Putin trying
:03:59. > :04:02.to recreate the Soviet era? I don't think it is trying to recreate the
:04:03. > :04:07.Soviet era, the Soviet Union as it is trying to demonstrate some level
:04:08. > :04:12.of dramatic conversion and all the integration as it would be put by
:04:13. > :04:19.these leaders in the post`Soviet space. Ironically enough, the cover
:04:20. > :04:22.died has been stressing the economic nature of this deal and all the
:04:23. > :04:26.political things that they stripped out of it such as Visa and
:04:27. > :04:32.diplomacy, the proposal for a Eurasian parliament that would have
:04:33. > :04:39.had a regular Tory role. And so it's become that demonstrates how
:04:40. > :04:42.political it is. There really isn't an economic read literary component.
:04:43. > :04:48.These are all members of the already existing customs union. Which has
:04:49. > :04:55.had a rocky history. It's really not clear what this union does. It's
:04:56. > :05:00.really not clear what it is for. Or what this summit is, other than a
:05:01. > :05:05.chance for Vladimir Putin to stand up with other leaders and to say,
:05:06. > :05:12.our countries are coming closer together. One country that were
:05:13. > :05:16.becoming closer is it Ukraine. It was due to be part of the deal. It
:05:17. > :05:22.is no longer there. How does that fact change things? Well, one of
:05:23. > :05:27.the... It doesn't change things necessarily too much on the ground
:05:28. > :05:30.in terms of the Customs Union. Ukraine was always a potential
:05:31. > :05:35.member of that and Russia has always made no secret of wanting Ukraine to
:05:36. > :05:42.be a key part of these post`Soviet integration of it. `` project. It
:05:43. > :05:47.really doesn't make sense to have something like this union without
:05:48. > :05:49.Ukraine. There's 45 million people they are, it is a large industrial
:05:50. > :05:54.centre, it is the second`largest post`Soviet country. Living the
:05:55. > :06:00.outwardly kind of like leaving France or Italy out of the EU. Now
:06:01. > :06:07.that Russia has invaded and annexed Gremio, it has not only made sure
:06:08. > :06:12.that Ukraine is not and will not be a member of any of these integration
:06:13. > :06:15.projects, at least until Vladimir Putin leaves the scene, it also has
:06:16. > :06:20.Belarus and Kazakhstan is truly worried. That Russian military
:06:21. > :06:31.intervention may be coming to their shores. Kazakhstan has a large
:06:32. > :06:34.Russian population. This new aggressive Russia is quite worrying
:06:35. > :06:38.and there have been signals that while they are willing to sign this
:06:39. > :06:45.deal, they are wary about integration. Good to talk to. Thank
:06:46. > :06:49.you very much indeed. Let's move on because Libya has the biggest oil
:06:50. > :06:54.reserves of any country in Africa. 44 billion barrels worth in total.
:06:55. > :06:57.Before the 2011 revolution, International welcome these competed
:06:58. > :07:01.very few sleep for the rights to explore there. Over the past year,
:07:02. > :07:05.Libya has collapsed into turmoil. Prompting many firms to pull out.
:07:06. > :07:08.The government is desperate to have them back and will be trying to win
:07:09. > :07:15.over at an event in London later today.
:07:16. > :07:20.In his last years as Libya's leader, will be Duffy started opening up the
:07:21. > :07:24.country to international business. All companies the passed on his
:07:25. > :07:28.door. Libya has the largest oil reserves of any country in Africa
:07:29. > :07:32.and they wanted a foothold there. But his overthrow has left the
:07:33. > :07:38.country dominated by 1700 militia groups. Recently, rival factions
:07:39. > :07:42.have fought battles in cities like Benghazi. The Governor, detect
:07:43. > :07:46.foreign companies from them. Militia groups frequently overrun oil
:07:47. > :07:58.installations in the desert and militias of occupied on the coast as
:07:59. > :08:04.well. Oil firms have all cut black operations in Libya and pulled out
:08:05. > :08:11.star. As a result, all production has slumped from 1.5 million barrels
:08:12. > :08:16.per day to about 250,000 barrels per day now. You'll Mac is looking
:08:17. > :08:21.increasingly unlikely that any companies would be going in over the
:08:22. > :08:25.next year. We are not seeing the fundamentals in place for an
:08:26. > :08:30.improvement in the security and political situation before 2015.
:08:31. > :08:33.Libya and 70% of its income from oil exports in the garment is desperate
:08:34. > :08:38.for foreign firms to ramp up production again. Every firm will be
:08:39. > :08:41.asking the same question. How does the government ensure that the
:08:42. > :08:46.workers are not attacked? That will be the first and foremost question I
:08:47. > :08:51.would think. Second will be the terms of the options. It is now the
:08:52. > :08:54.Libyan government 's on the back foot. They need to offer the
:08:55. > :08:59.attractive terms to entice these companies back into Libya. It is not
:09:00. > :09:03.the other way round and more. Oil firms have turned their backs on
:09:04. > :09:06.militia dominated Libya. Some smaller firms had told the
:09:07. > :09:09.government that they would be interested in taking over their
:09:10. > :09:16.exploration licences. Especially if they can acquire them at knockdown
:09:17. > :09:19.prices. Retailers in Japan are counting the
:09:20. > :09:24.cost of last month rise in sales taxes. Sharanjit Leyl has more in
:09:25. > :09:31.Singapore. Run are through the figures. A huge cost in fact. It is
:09:32. > :09:37.a faster decline in retail sales in Japan since March 2011 earthquake.
:09:38. > :09:42.That reason, people are spending less after that sales tax hike. It's
:09:43. > :09:47.all the sales tax going up to 8% from what had previously been 5%. Of
:09:48. > :09:54.the data is showing sales have fallen 4.4%. The effect of this
:09:55. > :09:59.increased the tax hike is getting to be felt. The reason why the Japanese
:10:00. > :10:06.government raised the sales tax was really an attempt to rein in public
:10:07. > :10:10.debt. Japan faces rising social welfare costs due to an ageing
:10:11. > :10:16.population. Sales had dropped in part due to consumers rushing to
:10:17. > :10:20.make purchases ahead of that tax rise on April one. That trend was
:10:21. > :10:25.very much evident in March where people rushed to stop pile on goods
:10:26. > :10:34.before the tax took effect. We saw sales surging 11%. Thank you. That's
:10:35. > :10:35.it from me and a team here on World Business Report. Do stay watching
:10:36. > :10:51.BBC World News. Two members of the band, one
:10:52. > :10:52.Direction have been seen in