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Loyalist troops began advancing towards Bouake, the epicenter of the revolt, on Sunday and sporadic gunfire was heard overnight there as well as at military camps in Abidjan. Shooting in both cities intensified before dawn.

"There was heavy shooting at the northern entrance to the city and in the city center. It's calmed a bit but we're still hearing gunfire," said one Bouake resident. Other residents confirmed the shooting.

Heavy shooting was also heard in Daloa, a hub for the western cocoa growing regions. It was not immediately clear what impact the unrest might have on the flow of cocoa supplies.

The soldiers were revolting over delayed bonus payments, promised by the government after an earlier mutiny in January but not fully paid after a collapse in the price of cocoa, Ivory Coast's main export, caused a revenue crunch.

A spokesman for the mutiny denied that any clashes had occurred in Bouake and said the renegade soldiers were firing in the air to dissuade any advance on the city.

But on Sunday, the group's leaders rejected the army's demand that they disarm and surrender.

"We can no longer turn back," said their spokesman Sergeant Seydou Kone. "We don't know what will happen to us, so we just want our money so we can start a new life. But we can't give up now that we've reached this point."

DIVIDED SOCIETY

Ivory Coast has been touted as a post-war success story after emerging from a 2002-2011 political crisis as one of the world's fastest growing economies.

But society remains deeply divided and a wave of mutinies that began earlier this year has exposed the lack of unity in a military assembled from former rebel and loyalist combatants.

The 8,400 mutineers, most of them former rebels who said they were promised bonuses for fighting to bring President Alassane Ouattara to power, received 5 million CFA francs ($8,400) each to end the January uprising.

But the government has struggled to pay remaining bonuses of 7 million CFA francs.

A spokesman for the group said on Thursday they would drop demands for the remaining money, an announcement rejected by many of the soldiers who sparked the current revolt.

An Abidjan resident said mutinying soldiers came out of the West African nation's largest military camp and erected barricades early on Monday, blocking traffic along one of the main thoroughfares in the east of the city.

Several schools near the camp did not open and the Abidjan-based African Development Bank [AFDB.UL], which employs several thousand people - many of them international staff - told its employees to stay home.

"I've been hearing the sound of kalashnikovs and a heavier weapon. That began at around 5 a.m. (1.00 a.m. ET) ... It's intense," said another Abidjan resident, who lives near the U.S. Embassy and the presidential residence.

At least eight people were shot by the mutineers in Bouake and the northern city of Korhogo on Saturday and Sunday as popular opposition against the revolt gathered momentum, sparking protest marches in several cities, including Abidjan. One man, a demobilized former rebel fighter, died on Sunday.

Lyft and Waymo to team up on self-driving cars amid Uber controversy

Waymo just launched a self-driving technology public pilot in Arizona, where its Chrysler Pacifica minivans equipped with in-house developed self-driving tech will be picking up families on-demand, with applications open to anyone working in the city. Waymo’s service is limited to begin with, but bringing a partner like Lyft into the mix will likely help it build out the side of the business that requires demand modeling, efficient routing and more.

It’s an interesting partnership because it’s another piece of the puzzle in addition to Waymo’s existing tie-ups with automakers, including Chrysler, and a pending an agreement with Honda. Waymo is positioning itself as the technology partner on the autonomy side, an essential service provider but not necessarily a player interested in owning the whole stack. Lyft offers another piece of the puzzle, which could ultimately benefit Waymo’s existing automaker partners, and help it attract more, too.

Uber is also making similar partnerships, with an open program for OEs, the first of which is Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler. Lyft is different, however, in that it has not expressed any interest in making its own self-driving tech in-house, but has instead formed a previously announced partnership with GM, which is likely to result in a pilot of autonomous tech fleet deployment with GM-owned Cruise.

This is the latest move that indicates Waymo might be closer to commercializing its technology than many may have thought. The Alphabet-owned company is arguably the player in the space with the most experience, with nearly a decade of development work and actual driving experience with autonomous car tech.

Billionaire’s Offer for Christian Dior Needs a New Look

Bernard Arnault wants to simplify his holdings of Dior and LVMH, but his proposal is looking shabby

France’s richest man may need to dig deeper into his pocket if he wants to straighten out his tangle of shareholdings in luxury leaders LVMH LVMUY -0.25% and Christian Dior . CDI -0.33%

Bernard Arnault announced last month that he wanted to buy out minority shareholders in Christian Dior, the listed entity through which he owns most of his stake in LVMH. He would pay what he said was Dior’s book value of €260 a share, in a mixture of cash and shares in a third luxury company whose shares he owns, Hermès.

But if the offer was ever pitched at book value, it no longer is.

Mr. Arnault used different methodologies for valuing Dior’s 41% stake in LVMH, which accounts for most of the company’s book value, and his own stake in Hermès, which accounts for about a third of the offer package. The Dior stake in LVMH was valued using one-month and three-month average share prices, while the Hermès stake was valued using the last available price. Since luxury shares have rebounded very strongly year-to-date, the inconsistency had the effect of understating Dior’s book value by about €14 a share.

The other problem is that LVMH shares have risen about 8% since the deal was announced, while Hermès shares have fallen 4%. Plug the latest share prices into Mr. Arnault’s model and Dior is worth €293 a share, while his offer is worth just €257—a 12% discount. The billionaire essentially wants to buy Christian Dior’s fashion house, which is the company’s only other asset, for free, only to sell it on to LVMH for €6.5 billion.

Some of the price moves since Mr. Arnault’s offer may be self-fulfilling. Dior shareholders, instead of waiting for the tender, have probably rotated into LVMH shares, boosting their value. They may have also sold Hermès shares, anticipating that they will receive fresh ones from Mr. Arnault.

Still, Dior’s shareholders have little to gain from selling out at a 12% discount to book. In the month before the announcement the Dior discount to book value as implied by LVMH’s stock price averaged 15%, calculates brokerage Bernstein. If Mr. Arnault wants the Dior minorities, he will probably have to offer more for them.

Of course, he might choose to walk away instead. Dior shares would then likely fall in rhythm with LVMH’s, which have also been buoyed by the earnings-boosting prospect of integrating the Dior fashion house. But this risk can be covered by a short position in LVMH stock. A stake in Dior would then amount to a pure bet that the discount between the companies’ valuations will close.

This seems a reasonable bet to make. Mr. Arnault has made clear he wants to simplify his empire, yet the discount remains almost as wide as it was before. That can’t last.