29/05/2014 World Business Report

Bay Buccaneers. Those are some of the headlines from BBC News. Now for

the latest financial news. Billy Davies. Apple to buy the

headphone Company in its biggest ever takeover. Plus, back in the

USSR. Vladimir Putin signed up his neighbours to an economic union.

They will have to do without Ukraine.

Welcome to World Business Report. In a moment, Africa's biggest oil

reserves, Libya tries to coax back foreign investment among a worsening

security situation. We look huge deal first of two names in the music

industry that are about to be get richer. On the left is Dr Dre. On

the right is the producer of stars from Bruce Springsteen to Lady

Gaga. These two co` founded the headphone Company, Beats which Apple

has confirmed it is buying into a deal worth $3 billion. They will

join the management team in what is the tech giant's biggest ever

takeover. From New York, are at Chris Burdon report. Even before the

deal was done, the cofounders seen here in the background boasted about

becoming billionaires. You are back you need to update the Forbes list!

Beats would be a billionaire just yet. His net worth will be around

$800 million. Still, that is a huge sum for him and for Apple. This is a

tax's the acquisition yet. It is paying $3 billion to buy Beats, the

headphone maker and streaming music service. Beats is the coolest thing

at the moment. They have the coolest executives and a great brand name.

They have a rapidly rolling consumer base before hardware and the digital

age and service. Apple is deftly grabbing onto their coattails and

trying to keep their own brand lost. Beats is best known for headphones

for Apple, the real prize is the music streaming service. For the

past decade, iTunes has dominated digital music. At that was in the

download era. These days, it is all about streaming. Even though Apple

broke into streaming last the table with iTunes Radio, the company

missed a beat and is now playing catch up. Apple hopes to make sweet

music with Beats did it over pay? With $150 billion in cash it is a

risk Apple can easily afford. The tech giant would properly argued you

can't put a price on cool. Now to the cover capital. V Putin is

due to sign a treaty to create the Eurasian economic union. Here are

the leaders at talks last month. Ukraine was to be a key member but

pulled out plans to join after it pro`Russian president was ousted.

Critics see the deal as part of a bigger plan to recreate the Soviet

empire, something Vladimir Putin has denied. Good to talk to you. Let's

start of talking about the deal. To me, it seems much more political

than economic. Is this the case that we are seeing Vladimir Putin trying

to recreate the Soviet era? I don't think it is trying to recreate the

Soviet era, the Soviet Union as it is trying to demonstrate some level

of dramatic conversion and all the integration as it would be put by

these leaders in the post`Soviet space. Ironically enough, the cover

died has been stressing the economic nature of this deal and all the

political things that they stripped out of it such as Visa and

diplomacy, the proposal for a Eurasian parliament that would have

had a regular Tory role. And so it's become that demonstrates how

political it is. There really isn't an economic read literary component.

These are all members of the already existing customs union. Which has

had a rocky history. It's really not clear what this union does. It's

really not clear what it is for. Or what this summit is, other than a

chance for Vladimir Putin to stand up with other leaders and to say,

our countries are coming closer together. One country that were

becoming closer is it Ukraine. It was due to be part of the deal. It

is no longer there. How does that fact change things? Well, one of

the... It doesn't change things necessarily too much on the ground

in terms of the Customs Union. Ukraine was always a potential

member of that and Russia has always made no secret of wanting Ukraine to

be a key part of these post`Soviet integration of it. `` project. It

really doesn't make sense to have something like this union without

Ukraine. There's 45 million people they are, it is a large industrial

centre, it is the second`largest post`Soviet country. Living the

outwardly kind of like leaving France or Italy out of the EU. Now

that Russia has invaded and annexed Gremio, it has not only made sure

that Ukraine is not and will not be a member of any of these integration

projects, at least until Vladimir Putin leaves the scene, it also has

Belarus and Kazakhstan is truly worried. That Russian military

intervention may be coming to their shores. Kazakhstan has a large

Russian population. This new aggressive Russia is quite worrying

and there have been signals that while they are willing to sign this

deal, they are wary about integration. Good to talk to. Thank

you very much indeed. Let's move on because Libya has the biggest oil

reserves of any country in Africa. 44 billion barrels worth in total.

Before the 2011 revolution, International welcome these competed

very few sleep for the rights to explore there. Over the past year,

Libya has collapsed into turmoil. Prompting many firms to pull out.

The government is desperate to have them back and will be trying to win

over at an event in London later today.

In his last years as Libya's leader, will be Duffy started opening up the

country to international business. All companies the passed on his

door. Libya has the largest oil reserves of any country in Africa

and they wanted a foothold there. But his overthrow has left the

country dominated by 1700 militia groups. Recently, rival factions

have fought battles in cities like Benghazi. The Governor, detect

foreign companies from them. Militia groups frequently overrun oil

installations in the desert and militias of occupied on the coast as

well. Oil firms have all cut black operations in Libya and pulled out

star. As a result, all production has slumped from 1.5 million barrels

per day to about 250,000 barrels per day now. You'll Mac is looking

increasingly unlikely that any companies would be going in over the

next year. We are not seeing the fundamentals in place for an

improvement in the security and political situation before 2015.

Libya and 70% of its income from oil exports in the garment is desperate

for foreign firms to ramp up production again. Every firm will be

asking the same question. How does the government ensure that the

workers are not attacked? That will be the first and foremost question I

would think. Second will be the terms of the options. It is now the

Libyan government 's on the back foot. They need to offer the

attractive terms to entice these companies back into Libya. It is not

the other way round and more. Oil firms have turned their backs on

militia dominated Libya. Some smaller firms had told the

government that they would be interested in taking over their

exploration licences. Especially if they can acquire them at knockdown

prices. Retailers in Japan are counting the

cost of last month rise in sales taxes. Sharanjit Leyl has more in

Singapore. Run are through the figures. A huge cost in fact. It is

a faster decline in retail sales in Japan since March 2011 earthquake.

That reason, people are spending less after that sales tax hike. It's

all the sales tax going up to 8% from what had previously been 5%. Of

the data is showing sales have fallen 4.4%. The effect of this

increased the tax hike is getting to be felt. The reason why the Japanese

government raised the sales tax was really an attempt to rein in public

debt. Japan faces rising social welfare costs due to an ageing

population. Sales had dropped in part due to consumers rushing to

make purchases ahead of that tax rise on April one. That trend was

very much evident in March where people rushed to stop pile on goods

before the tax took effect. We saw sales surging 11%. Thank you. That's

it from me and a team here on World Business Report. Do stay watching

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