The long anticipated merger deal between Virgin Media and O2 moved a step closer to being finalized as the two companies received a key backing, BBC reported. The deal is valued at some £31bn and was provisionally approved by the UK's competition watchdog. The statement has been awaited since last December when The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation of the proposal.

The crypto currency Coinbase made a smashing debut and it saw its shares surge and marked value reaching as high as 86 billion dollars after touching briefly 100 billion, AP reported. Coinbase Global IPO is seen by some as an inflection point for digital currencies, as Coinbase’s fortunes are closely tied to Bitcoin, the most popular crypto currency. Bitcoin’s price topped $64,000 in mid-week trading, up from $29,000 at the start of the year, and Coinbase said recently that first-quarter revenue should total around $1.8 billion, exceeding its revenue for all of 2020.

American Airlines said on Wednesday it expects to fly more than 90% of its domestic seat capacity in the summer of 2021, compared with the same period in 2019, due to a strong rebound in bookings.

UK biggest retailer Tesco announced a surge in 2020 sales as the company managed to adapt successfully to new business environment driven by pandemic restrictions, Reuters reported. Tesco said its revenue exceeded market expectations edging to total adjusted retail operating profit of 1.99 billion pounds after seeing “exceptionally strong” sales during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The budget carrier EasyJet announced it expected to return to strong sales by end-May as Covid restrictions ease in most countries and vaccination rollout in Europe gains speed, Reuters reported. The carrier emphasized a jump in sales due to summer travel rebound is vital to offset losses caused by the pandemic grounding of EasyJet’s fleet. It elaborated that in its April to end of June quarter it would fly up to 20% of 2019 capacity levels.

The European Central Bank announced intentions to step up its operations aimed to curb borrowing costs, Reuters reported. ECB intervened on the bond markets to reduce rising tension over European banks. The bank further warned the European policy makers that a too early withdrawal of stimulus packages will pose serious risk for economies.

Trade relations between UK and EU have returned to the fast growth lane in February after the registered January disruption, BBC reported, quoting official statistics data. British exports to the EU jumped by 46.6%,  to £11.6bn, following January's 42% slump when firms struggled with new trade rules related to Brexit. However, the UK Office for National Statistics noted that exports were still below last year's levels and imports from the EU had seen a weaker recovery. Other figures from the ONS showed the UK economy grew by 0.4% in February.

The leading Swiss bank Credit Suisse flooded the market with shares of the media conglomerate Discovery in a move to raise funds and target them to offsetting piling losses, Reuters reported. The large blocs of Discovery Inc and iQIYI Inc were put on the market after regular trading ended in Tuesday bourse session. The large share offering is linked to the meltdown of Archegos Capital which took a hit last month.

UK and six EU countries vowed to stop providing guarantees, related to all projects linked to exports of fossil fuels, Reuters reported. The initiative includes Britain, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden. Official representatives of governments in London, Paris and Berlin are expected to seal formally the pact on Wednesday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. The intended deal includes halt of all public export guarantees.

For over 1000 identified solutions that protect the environment in a financially profitable way in the field of water, energy, construction, mobility, industry and agriculture, announced on Tuesday the Solar Impulse Foundation, led by explorer and psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard. Indeed, Piccard together with André Borschberg, made the first ever round-the-world solar flight in 2016 with their zero-emission electric and solar airplane, flying day and night without fuel.