VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Venture capital firms raise less capital and face a slowdown in tech funding for 2015. However, the number is still above annual average since 2006.

Sentiment at some of Asia's biggest firms has deteriorated as a slowing Chinese economy, Greek sovereign debt crisis and looming U.S. interest rate hike create deepening concern about the state of the world economy, a Thomson Reuters/INSEAD survey showed.

Goldman Sachs (GS.N) is reviving plans to issue at least $500 million worth of Islamic bonds, a sign that Islamic finance is going mainstream as big conventional banks seek to tap Middle Eastern money.

U.S. August auto sales were the highest for that month in more than a decade, thanks in part to heavy discounting by the manufacturers and a strong Labor Day weekend close, with the industry selling at an annualized pace not seen since early 2006.

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will return as head of Bloomberg LP, the data and financial news company he founded, replacing Daniel Doctoroff who has decided to step aside, the company said on Wednesday.

Some of the best-known technology investors are looking beyond their tried-and-true Internet plays to bet on healthcare data as the next growth market.

U.S. stocks have been on a roll of late, with the S&P 500 hitting the latest in a series of records on Thursday, and investors expect the index's momentum to soon carry it to - if not far past - the 2,000 milestone.

Palo Alto, US-based cloud data service and enterprise software provider Apigee raised $60 million in new funding to expand its existing services beyond the basic application programming interface (API) technology.

Venture capital firms in the US have raised a record-breaking total funding amounting to $8.9 billion in the first quarter of 2014, according to Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association.

North Texas received more than $630 million in venture capital investments in 2013, demonstrating a significant improvement from the $126 million commitment the region received in 2012.

Washington, US-based private equity firm Carlyle Group plans to raise $290 million by selling 100 million shares in Hong Kong-based home appliance maker Haier Electronics Group Ltd, according to IFR.

Chinese auto manufacturer BAIC Motor plans to raise around $2 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong in 2014's second quarter, according to sources cited by Thomson Reuters publication IFR.

The private equity arm of London-based banking firm Standard Chartered picked up a 13% stake in Botswana-based supermarket chain Choppies Enterprises in a deal valued at $6 million.

Cape Town, South Africa-based investment firm Foord Asset Management has lifted its stake in Johannesburg-based drug maker Adcock Ingram to 15%, according to a regulatory filing on Friday.

Data from Thomson Reuters Lipper service showed that investors of US-based stock mutual funds pulled out a total of $6.51 billion in the week ending December 11, Reuters reported.