this is business live from bbc news with sally bundock and victoria fritz. "liked" by wall street — again. facebook shrugs off privacy concerns as earnings surge — despite a multi—billion dollar hit from us regulators. we are live, we're in london, and that's our top story on thursday 25 april. facebook has said it will set aside funds to cover a fine of up to 5 billion dollars to cover the potential costs of an investigation by us authorities into its privacy practices.

also: the former boss of nissan and renault — carlos ghosn — could be out ofjail again very soon after he was granted bailfor a second time. but it is coming out quite a price. markets heading lower, learning season markets heading lower, learning season first, but that is not exciting investors in europe. —— fest. and where there's muck there's brass — we'll be get the inside track on how to make money out of the business of waste. we'll talk to first mile about how to get businesses to maximise their recycling. it's a very busy show today. the competition watchdog has turned down a merger between sainsbury, walmart and asda, saying it could drive up prices. today, we want to know, is this a victory for the consumer, or, do you shop around for the best prices anyway? let us know — just use

the hashtag bbcbizlive lets get stuck in, the show is jam packed and we begin with facebook. you may well be a loser. if you are, you are not alone, the company is growing and growing, making more money, attracting more of us. and thatis money, attracting more of us. and that is despite ongoing concerns about privacy on its platform. facebook says revenues were just over $15 billion in the three months to march — a jump of 26% on this time last year and better than wall street was expecting. it's benefiting from a surge in advertising spending on the platform, and a growth in instagram. but it's warning it could face a hit of up to 5 billion dollars as it settles us investigations into its handling of users‘ data— after the cambridge analytica scandal. it's already spent 3 billion

in legal expenses this quarter. those privacy concerns clearly aren't putting people off facebook. the number of people using it at least once a month is 2.38 billion, up 8% on this time last year. more than1.5 more than 1.5 billion are logging in every single day. shares have had a torrid session: facebook shares slumped lastjuly when it reported disappointing revenue numbers and warned user growth was slowing. investors wiped 120 billion dollars off its market value. but look how their confidence in the company has been returning. since december shares are up almost a0%. let's bring in isabel fox, co founder, luminous ventures and shejoins me now.

it is extraordinary and. are they immune? scandal after scandal, public problems, 76% of users had to change their password, felt compelled to change their password, but they continue to flourish. has the business model change, hearing from mark zuckerberg just the other day, saying, he sounds quite bullish about the outlook and not in any way, well, appearing to apologise for what has happened. way, well, appearing to apologise for what has happenedlj way, well, appearing to apologise for what has happened. i don't think we have had a willingness, of owning up we have had a willingness, of owning up on the mistakes they have made. yes, last night, on the earnings call, there was a lot of talk about what they need to be doing around encryption, security, the spend they will put into that. i still don't think they have really owned up to it, even the fine, it sounds like a lot of money but it is the cost of them doing business, ratherthan them doing business, ratherthan them really being hit and changing. have a lapsed on data security, even

last week they were having problems. i think it is a massive problem and it will take ages for them to rectify it, last night, actually, on the call, mark said this is a five year plan and proposal to get to what he is calling their privacy focused encrypted service. this is going to take some time. the first year of that is purely getting advice from counsel. instagram, talking on the call about being the living room of the future, and this being a whole data encrypted environment, a safe environment, one of the things that people have turned to, after the facebook scandals, is instagram. facebook owned instagram, are they in danger of having some of the problems they had on facebook following them onto instagram as well. they have not had that so far, 500 million daily users at the moment of instagram stories, at the moment of instagram stories, at the moment of instagram stories, at the moment, instagram is where

they are seeing the growth. what will be interesting is, when stories sta rts will be interesting is, when stories starts to get more advertisers, currently 3 million advertisers are using it but that will obviously increase, especially as at the moment they are discounting prices for advertisers. whether that starts to affect interest with instagram will be the telling sign. we will leave it there, thank you very much. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news tesla says it lostjust over 700 million dollars in the first three months of the year. the electric car maker burnt through $1.5 billion of its cash reserves in the period — leaving it with 2.2 billion at the end of march and rekindling concerns it will have to go to investors to raise more money. the stock market value of microsoft briefly topped

a trillion dollars for the first time — overtaking apple — after profits beat wall street expectations and bosses predicted continuing growth for its cloud computing business. the proposed merger between uk supermarket chain sainsbury‘s and walmart‘s asda has been blocked by the competition watchdog. the competition and markets authority said it would raise prices for consumers and worsen the experience of millions of shoppers. the deal would have created the uk's biggest supermarket chain, with sainsbury‘s and asda arguing that it would have cut their costs. now, the former boss of nissan and renault, carlos ghosn, could be out ofjail again soon after he was granted bailfor a second time. mr ghosn is facing a series of charges of financial misconduct — all of which he denies. rupert wingfield hayes is in tokyo - and we're expecting news in the next half an hour? we expect him to leave jail, presumably. yes, i think that is what is going to happen, it appears to have been held up by the fact the

prosecutors office has appealed the bail decision. the tokyo district court decided around lunchtime today to grant him bail for a second time, setting it at $4.5 million this time, his legal team posted that money, pretty much straightaway, obviously prepared for this, they did not have to scrabble around for $4.5 million. they had it ready to go. prosecutors then appealed the decision and that, we think, is being heard right now. i expect, sticking my neck out, i expect the district court to reject that appeal, so, his release on bail will go ahead, whether it will go ahead today or be delayed until tomorrow, it's hard to say but i do expect carlos ghosn to be released on bail very soon. looking at markets. mixed fixture in asia, one of the reasons japan did really well, compared to

the rest of asia, the dollar is at a high at the moment, the moment, the gain is relatively weak, that helps exporters listed on the nikkei 225, but as you can see elsewhere, a bit ofa but as you can see elsewhere, a bit of a flat day, people are worried about the global economy, trade, those kind of things, that is how the day ended on wall street the day before. moving on to europe, earnings are dominating, lots of good news out from companies like microsoft and others, better—than—expected, facebook, some are disappointing, a big mover on the ftse is sainsbury‘s, shares down 6% so far today, on the news we have already mentioned that the merger with asda has been blocked by the competition and markets authority. a big mover is barclays. results were mixed. 1.6%, pre—tax profits down. let's now hear from michelle, mixed. 1.6%, pre—tax profits down. let's now hearfrom michelle, on mixed. 1.6%, pre—tax profits down. let's now hear from michelle, on the day ahead on wall street.

slew of earnings from the tech sector continues. the success of amazon's cloud business and higher ad sales are driving profit. the online site is hmmfi driving profit. the online site is forecast for the rest of the year. turning to chip makers, intel is expected to report a drop in first—quarter revenue, it is struggling with falling demand for chips. 0ne struggling with falling demand for chips. one day after announcing it is investing $500 million in electric truck maker vivian, fault has reported first—quarter results, with the us car market slowing, investors want to know how it —— its restructuring efforts are progressing. loyal coffee drinkers in the united states and china are set to give starbucks a cult when it turns in second—quarter profits. —— a jolt. joining us is ben kumar, investment manager,

seven investment management. the proposed merger between walmart and sainsbury has been declined. the share is on the move. 6% down, and sainsbury has been declined. the share is on the move. 696 down, the big problem is that shares have been falling all year, the merger was announced, that was great, but since thenit announced, that was great, but since then it has lost market share to asda, who it was going to merge with, and this review by the competition and markets authority suggests it has too many shops and if it is not making money, though shops will come at a price. sainsbury's needs to find a way to revitalise business, i don't think it has found it yet. what else are you looking at, so many big companies out with earnings, busy time. one interesting thing is how many companies are coming out and saying how boeing is affecting them. the aerospace manufacturers have come out and now airlines like norwegian have come out and said, aerospace manufacture rs are norwegian have come out and said, aerospace manufacturers are not going to make the parts for the jets, because the max is on hold and

the airlines are saying, if we cannot fly planes, how will we complete these journeys that we promise passengers? it is not only they cannot fly, it is compensation that will have to be paid. it shows you what happens when two big manufacturers dominate an industry, when something goes wrong with one of them, it really is problematic. we will leave it there for a moment, papers to run through including who may be the runners and riders for the new bank of england governor. exciting! we are waiting with bated breath, so much more for you including, where there is muck, there is brass. the inside track on how to make money out of waste. we'll talk to the boss of first mile about how to get businesses to maximise their recycling. you're with business live from bbc news. before all of that, let's talk some

more about the cma decision with regard to sainsbury‘s and asda. it said the plans would have increased prices and reduced quality. stuart mcintosh has chaired the inquiry for the competition and markets authority. sainsbury‘s promised £1 billion of price cuts and selling stores. why was that not enough? we have confirmed we will block the merger, in taking the decision we were very aware of the promises on pricing, which you have described, and a couple of things on that. one is that the price reductions were predicated and linked to savings and costs, which we looked at very closely during the course of the enquiry and we have concluded they we re enquiry and we have concluded they were unlikely to be realised. secondly, we considered it would be very difficult to verify and track

these price reductions over time, more fundamentally, these price promises did not really address the fundamental competition concerns as a result of two of the larger supermarket chains in the country merging, reducing competition in supermarkets, online shopping and at filling stations. with the consequent impact on prices. and service quality. did you consider the buying power of the two together as well, when it comes to suppliers to this potentially huge player? we did, indeed, and we did reach the conclusion that that was likely to allow them to realise a savings through purchasing from their suppliers. but, not on the scale that they themselves had projected. shoppers in the uk are savvy, they shop around, the emergence of algae and little show that. why isn't the supermarket sector considered competitive? the supermarket sector

is pretty competitive, what we have been looking at in the context of the merger is to understand if competition is going to be harmed as a result of the merger. to do that, we survey probably approaching 60,000 shoppers and motorists, to understand what leads them to shop in different places. as a result of that, we came to a very strong conclusion that this merger is likely to reduce competition, not increase it. thank you very much. your're watching business live — our top story: facebook shrugs off privacy concerns as earnings surge despite a multi—billion dollar hit from us regulators the ad spend is also increasing. quick look at the markets and how they are faring. european markets trading 53 points at the moment on the ftse 100.

shares in sainsbury‘s are down 6% at the moment. nokia has reported shock loss in the first quarter, stock down 10% in early trading. blaming competitive intensity on some of their accounts, and rivals being commercially aggressive, particularly in 5g. lots more on that story on the tablet on business life. recycling is very much on the rise as a growing number of us get more concerned about the planet. and if you're doing it home it's pretty easy but what about if you're a company generating lots of waste? if you put minerals to one side the eu has seen a steady increase in recycling rates and 55% of all waste is now recycled across the region. the biggest share of that is "paper and cardboard" at 41%, plastic and glass are the next most common at 19% each of all recycling materials. all that recycled material is pretty valuable. last year the eu exported $15.6bn

worth of recyclable raw materials. bruce bratley, chief executive and founder of first mile is with us now. why is your business needed, do you think? we believe in a world without waste, that is our mission, sounds strange for a waste and recycling company but businesses are not recycling an appropriate amount of waste because it has been difficult for them, we help businesses reduce the amount of waste, which is important for the environment, re cycle a s important for the environment, recycle as much as possible, and then divert as much as we can from landfill and ideally we have no waste going to landfill. we are needed because recycling for businesses has historically been very difficult, with infrequent collections and the private sector only servicing large businesses. funny, i'm surprised to hear this, that it funny, i'm surprised to hear this, thatitis funny, i'm surprised to hear this, that it is difficult, you would imagine that some businesses have huge amounts of waste but the push from local council for domestic homes to get their act together has been pretty hard and fast. there has

been pretty hard and fast. there has beena been pretty hard and fast. there has been a lot of activity, 55% recycling, but that is flatlining, recently, we are moving away from increasing recycling rates, businesses have a key part to play, you are right, it is easier in some way to recycle more from businesses, to get the recycling we need to focus on household but also give more attention to businesses which is what we are trying to do. how do you make money from the process? we charge for the service, there is some value in commodities, that has gone down by about two thirds in the la st gone down by about two thirds in the last five years, the value from the commodities, for us it is about providing easy and convenient services to take businesses, to take businesses waste away. but there is a small amount of value in the commodities, which also contributes to making money. cities in the uk, very prevalent in london, you operate in birmingham and a few

others, they have to hit their targets, when it comes to the carbon footprint, there are green policies. london has strong efforts going on, are you benefiting from that at all? yes, because there is more interest now with blue planet, david attenborough's recent programme on the bbc, and people are starting to get more interested in the environment. recycling is a key way in which people can make a really significant impact because recycling materials prevents us from mining raw materials and prevents plastics going into the ocean, a really key element and we are starting to get a bit more, a bit more interest, significantly more interest into it, we are benefiting. in terms of london, it is really important, and birmingham as well, introducing a clean zone in january, birmingham as well, introducing a clean zone injanuary, and the ultra low emission zone, that the mayor has brought in, really important we deliver services with low impact. an entire fleet is compliant, we are also making deliveries of recycling sacks and bins using bicycles and

electric vehicles as well, we are making the transition ahead of most businesses to zero emission logistics. how do you scale up a business like this? you are competing with huge players, the likes of violia, how do you grow the business so that people migrate onto you, so other businesses migrate onto you? what is happening in the market is interesting, components in the waste stream are getting more complicated, there is more composites and coffee cups, a lot of media attention there. -- veolia. we have just launched a service to re cycle have just launched a service to recycle coat hangers. the waste streams are getting more complex and volumes of waste are going down, so the traditional players have been very much focused on a commoditised approach, landfill or incinerate the waste and may be some recycling of the mainstreams. well, where we are

focusing on is recovering and recycling the technical aspects, a national service at the moment, for recycling a wide array of materials, which may not be huge tonnages but are complicated to recycle, so that is where we see the market going in the future for us in terms of scaling up. thank you for coming in, really interesting. thanks very much. very important given what is happening in the world. how to get in touch with us? stay up—to—date with all the days business news as it happens on the bbc business life page, there is insight and analysis from our team of editors right around the globe, and we want to hear from you, too, get involved on the business life web page, on the bbc website, and we are on twitter. and you can find us on facebook.

a very quick piece of news for you that we have not mentioned. royal bank of scotland, big bank in the uk, the boss, ross mcewan, leaving, bit of a shock departure, after five yea rs of bit of a shock departure, after five years of service at the top of the company. if you are wondering about perhaps the timing of this, it is the annual general meeting today, perhaps you wanted to get in ahead of that. there is an interview that has been done by the bbc, in a few hours' time, i am sure we will have more on the story when it is available later in the day. ben is back, as promised, the runners and riders for the bank of england job, may be ross mcewan is considering it... he probably is not, that is just a bit of a sad sally segway. well, he has 12 months... ! sally segway. well, he has 12 months. . .! who is said to be interested in the job?

months. . .! who is said to be interested in thejob? given months. . .! who is said to be interested in the job? given the ride that mark carney has had, it is not as attractive now as it was when he joined. probably a little bit of a difference in what central bank head means, back then it was, take this and move on to the next level, now, coming to the bank of england probably having to deal with brexit a little bit, we think, or at least the fallout from it. probably someone the fallout from it. probably someone internal would be my take, lots of the people... could we have a woman? chance, so many strides to get more women on the board of the bank of england, and, you know, it is about time. the federal reserve, janet yellen, previous chair, we don't like to be beaten by america for too long over here. i do think it will be likely that someone internal... mark carney did a great job, has done a good job, but from canada and not related to the bank of england. i suspect they will look to somebody under the tenure of mervyn king, for instance. a bit early to tell but i am sure we will

find out as things go on. this made me laugh, sharon white, married to robert chote, chairman of the 0br, both in the running, interestingly. interesting breakfast conversation, i should imagine. apparently there isa i should imagine. apparently there is a fight for toilet supremacy... what does that mean? it is the battle between hand dryers and paper towels, a little bit to do with recycling, that we had so much about, hand dryers, despite the cost that goes into them, the environmental issues and mining alls to make motors, are way more environmentally friendly. paper towels are not but they are cleaner and all the research says, you prefer clean hands to more efficiently dried hands. —— ores. prefer clean hands to more efficiently dried hands. —— oresm ta kes efficiently dried hands. —— oresm takes ages to dry your hands on a

hand dryer, but towels, you are gone quickly. dyson, when he brought forward the air blade said, it takes 26 seconds to dry your hands under one of those vertical ones, which i think push the water on the floor, just my opinion. now it takes 12 seconds. still quite a long time. you want to be in and out. massive queue, service station, august, france... the hand dryer queue is just... that is the cherry on the cake! laughter absolutely. the other thing is, plenty of people in public toilets who do not want to touch anything...! you can understand why, you can see why people would go for the air blade, almost a contactless experience. something like alan partridge, sleeve on the door. brilliant to have you on the programme, thank you very much indeed. having a quick look to see

who has been in response, asking if you are the savvy shopper, is this a victory for consumers. yesterday we saw some impressive showers and thunderstorms making their way north across the uk, over the next few days, unsettled with further spells of rain and some showers, and feeling much cooler as well. low pressure, situated towards the west of the uk, all these weather fronts gathering up, quite a messy picture across the uk, and bringing us the showers, longer spells of rain, one band moving north, out of england and wales this afternoon, into scotland and northern ireland, dries to the far north of scotland. england and wales, a mixture of sunny spells and showers, some of them heavy and even thundery. cooler feeling day

compared to yesterday, maximum temperature, 13 to 16 degrees. through tonight, showers will move north. batch of rain far north, south—western parts, overnight temperatures down to four to eight celsius. it is this band of rain in the west that will move east throughout friday, tending to break up throughout friday, tending to break up into more showery rain as the day goes on, but during the afternoon, with the showers, heavy, potential for the odd rumble of thunder, some sunny spells developing during friday afternoon. maximum temperature is 14 to 18 degrees. late friday, as we go into the start of the weekend, keeping a close eye on this area of low pressure. as it moves in, you can see, the white lines, the isobars, really quite close together, for this time of year, strong wind, south—west wales, south—western areas of england in particular. gusts up to 60 mph in

some spots during saturday morning. those winds will gradually ease off, but you can see the band of rain which will move east, stick around, wet and windy day for many. some try and brighter weather coming through. we st and brighter weather coming through. west areas. temperature is only 11, 12 celsius, very cool for this time of year. during sunday, things should improve, that rain will have cleared, there will be a bit of sunshine coming through, quite a bit of cloud, lighter when compared to saturday. those temperatures will again be 13, 14, saturday. those temperatures will again be13,14,15 degrees, on the cool side. things looking a bit more settled into next week.

you're watching bbc news at nine, with me, annita mcveigh. the headlines: cases of measles almost quadrupled in england last year, as a report warns more than half a million children in the uk may not have had the jab. all round the world we have seen a 169 million children between 2010 and 2017 not get the immunisations that they should be having. president putin and the north korean leader, kimjong—un, meet in russia for their first ever summit. the competition watchdog blocks the planned merger between sainsbury‘s and asda. government ministers call for an investigation, after yesterday's leak of controversial plans for the uk to use chinese technology in its 5g network. sirmo farah claims he was robbed at a hotel