VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Giant U.S. discount department store KMART Corp. paid $1.4 million for violating the False Claims Act by illegally using promotional materials to convince Medicare beneficiaries to fill prescriptions at its pharmacies, said the U.S. Justice Department Tuesday.

Slumping oil prices take its toll on the Canadian economy. Canada is now officially in a recession for the first time in six years, as crude prices plummet due to supply glut and falling global demand, particularly from China.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Inc. of Canada has partnered with AstraZeneca for the selling rights of psoriasis drug brodalumab. Amgen Inc. ended its partnership with AstraZeneca due to its worries over the drug's side effects.

After launching Android Wear back in March 2014 and seeing how Apple watch sales performed after their release, Google had decided to release an app that will allow their smartwatch that is already in the market to perform a twist. Android Wear will be iOS compatible.

A study conducted by Interpol and the United Nations said that only 33% of Europe's electronic wastes is correctly recycled. A large number of these electronic wastes include computers, cellphones and televisions that are dumped or traded illegally.

Several measures gauging the manufacturing industry activity are showing discouraging results. The latest manufacturing gauging index slipped below 50, which indicates the deceleration in the manufacturing industry, falling to 49.7 in August.

A group of wealthy internet entrepreneurs and investors in China are putting their money on NextEV, a rival to U.S. electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors Inc.

E-commerce startup Jet.com which was launched on July 31 had raised $225M only by this month. The new company was valued $600M and is now competing with Amazon.com.

Copper price slipped below $2.40/lb (1lb=453.59265gm), a key support level, and was trading at $2.3260. With the $2.4 level becoming the key resistance level, the copper price needs to break this level to gain upward movement.

In just 135 characters, Minecraft creator Markuss Persson has expressed his feelings of existential meltdown on Twitter Saturday:

The $37B worth deal of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. with Precision Castparts Corporation, a major aircraft parts supplier of Boeing had encouraged more investors in the aircraft industry. However, Boeing had been delaying its suppliers' M&A contracts.

The ten teams in Formula One auto racing are under a total debt of $318.2 million, and 64.2% of that belongs to Lotus. Lotus belongs to Genii Capital, a private equity firm founded by Skype investor Gerard Lopez. Creditors have been going after Lotus for the last several months. Its cars were almost impounded during the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend after former reserve driver Charles Pic filed a legal dispute.

Alibaba Pictures Group announced Friday that it lost 151.8 million Yuan ($24 million) in the first half of 2015. The loss is due to the transformation the company is undergoing. According to the company, most of its projects are still under the investment stage, and its profit is not yet included in the revenue report of the period.

Retailers are experiencing a mixed season, so are the department stores. Not a lot of consumers are going in hoards to spend their money in department stores. It may be due to this year's later Labor Day, or maybe they'd rather be in the beach than shopping in the malls.

Disney's plans to push Star Wars merchandise with such great force is headed certainly headed to success. Last year, Frozen merchandise sales brought Disney massive success, giving its segment revenue a double-digit growth. But Star Wars merchandise won't be the same as Frozen, because of the demographics.