The 10 biggest business stories on Friday January 15

BT £12.5bn EE Takeover Cleared By Regulator ; Netflix to block proxy access to content not available locally

Video-streaming platform Netflix plans to take new steps to prevent its subscribers form streaming content that isn’t available in their country

1. BT Group's takeover of mobile phone network EE has been given final clearance by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The CMA said the £12.5 billion deal was unlikely to cause significant harm to competition.

2. Bankrupt teen apparel retailer American Apparels board has rejected the latest takeover offer involving the company's controversial founder, Dov Charney, a source told Reuters.

3. Germany's highest court has declared unlawful a feature that encourages Facebook users to market the social media network to their contacts, confirming the rulings of two lower courts.

4. JPMorgan Chase ended the year with a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by cost cuts and a smaller legal bill, and expressed confidence about its businesses in 2016 despite a grim start for stocks and energy prices. The biggest US bank by assets said it expected net interest income to rise by about $2 billion as a result of the hike and loan growth.

5. Goldman Sachs said it agreed to settle a US probe into its handling of mortgage-backed securities for about $5.1 billion. The deal was reached with the US Department of Justice's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

6. Fiat Chrysler has denied allegations by two dealerships in Chicago which accused the company of inflating sales.

7. Top global miner BHP Billiton said on Friday it would book a $7.2 billion writedown on the value of its US shale assets, reflecting a slump in oil and gas prices and a bleak near-term outlook.

8. Russian state controlled energy group Gazprom, reported a loss in the third quarter as commodity prices fell and a week rouble inflated its forex-nominated debt.

9. Video-streaming platform Netflix plans to take new steps to prevent its subscribers form streaming content that isn’t available in their country.

10. Uber's China unit is worth more than $8 billion. Chief executive Travis Kalanick said on Friday the ride-hailing firm in China was valued at more than $8 billion after its latest fundraising round, over $1 billion more than before the effort.