Tuesday, 07 March 2017 06:37
Snap Inc.’s IPO a success; raises $3.4 billion on New York Stock Exchange
Instant messaging application Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc. debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on March 2, and it surged more than 40 percent from the level set in the initial offering the night before. The company soared as its IPO raised $3.2 billion with a price of $17 a share. Snap Inc. was up about 45.4 percent to $24.72 near 16:30 GMT, shortly after logging its first trades. It was the largest public offering of a US tech…
Wednesday, 22 February 2017 11:12
China’s Ant Financial moves into South Korea with $200m investment
China’s No.1 mobile wallet app, Ant Financial, which is an affiliate of Alibaba Group, has made its move to penetrate the South Korean payment platform market with a $200m investment. However, it’s just the latest in a number of significant overseas investments the Chinese company has made in recent months. Earlier this week it was announced that Ant Financial had agreed a deal to take a stake in a fin-tech company in the Philippines – the details of the deal…
Wednesday, 22 February 2017 11:10
Telefónica selling 40% of its infrastructure unit to pay off heavy debt
Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica confirmed it will be selling up to 40 percent of its infrastructure unit Telxius to US investment fund KKR for 1.27 billion euros ($1.35 billion). The company, which is burdened by heavy debt, failed last September to float the unit after not being able to attract enough demand for the share sale. Telefónica said it will keep a majority stake and operational control of Telxius, which operates telecommunications towers and subsea fiber optic cables, and would…
Wednesday, 22 February 2017 05:20
Yahoo slashes assets price for Verizon in wake of data breach scandal
Following the shocking announcement made by Yahoo last year that 1.5 billion of its users accounts were hacked on two separate occasions, Yahoo has slashed the price of its core internet business in the sale to US telecom giant Verizon by $350 million. Under the revised terms of the delayed deal, Verizon will now purchase Yahoo’s assets for $4.48 billion. Yahoo is still in the midst of lawsuits related to the large cyber attacks against its users, which affected more…
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Monday, 20 February 2017 10:04
Accenture plan to boost US workforce by creating 15,000 jobs
Accenture have disclosed its plans to create an additional 15,000 jobs over the next three years in the US. The technology consulting and services company announced that it will increase its American workforce by 30%. In a statement issued by Accenture they outlined plans to create 15,000 ‘highly skilled new jobs’ which would subsequently increase its overall workforce in the US to more than 65,000 by the end of 2020. Accenture further disclosed its plans to create 10 new ‘innovation…
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Monday, 20 February 2017 09:02
Snap Inc. seeks to raise $2 billion in largest tech IPO in three years
Snapchat’s corporate parent Snap Inc. reportedly seeks to raise over $2 billion for the fast-growing social media group in the technology sector’s largest public offering in nearly three years. Filed documents showed that Snap Inc. expects net proceeds of some $2 billion. The Snap Inc. IPO will provide 145 million new shares and sell 55 million from existing share owners, with an expected price range of $14 to $16, according to the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.…
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Thursday, 16 February 2017 07:24
Virtual reality products fail to boost revenue for HTC
Taiwan-based HTC posted disappointing Q4 results this month, with analysts suggesting that its hyped up virtual reality (VR) products failed to boost revenue for the smartphone manufacturer. HTC’s revenue from October to December 2016 was down 13.62 percent year on year to Tw$22.2 billion ($720 million). The company did, however, see an improvement in net loss which was Tw$3.1 billion year on year compared with Tw$3.4 billion. But it marks the seventh consecutive quarter that HTC has suffered a loss.…
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Thursday, 16 February 2017 07:19
Hong Kong’s PCCW looking to sell 11.1% of HKT for $1.1 billion
Hong Kong-based PCCW, the holding company of HKT Group Holdings Limited, the information and communications technology company, reportedly plans to raise HK$8.53 billion ($1.09 billion) through the sale of 840.7 million share stapled units in subsidiary HKT. According to reports, PCCW plans to use the proceeds from the sale to pay back debt, make further investments in media and IT services, business and other general corporate purposes. The company is said to be expanding its reach into Asia, including a…
Wednesday, 15 February 2017 09:52
WGS 2017 - IMF chief praises UAE for leading other Gulf countries towards the introduction of tax
IMF (International Monetary Fund) Managing Director, Christine Lagarde has praised the UAE for leading other Gulf countries in its preparations to implement taxation that will be effective from January 1st, 2018. The IMF chief was speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, and told residents in the Gulf region that they must 'get used' to taxation in order to continue the investment in large-scale public infrastructure projects. The UAE, and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council will all introduce VAT…
Tuesday, 14 February 2017 06:34
Singtel’s performance strengthened by higher contribution from associates
Singtel delivered a resilient third quarter performance with a strong core business and higher contributions from regional mobile associates. In the core business, ICT revenues grew, bolstered by contract wins by NCS and demand for cyber security services. Higher consumer home services revenue in Singapore and growth in postpaid mobile customer numbers in Australia helped mitigate continued voice to data substitution and roaming revenue declines. Among the associates, strong performance from Telkomsel offset the impact of very intense competition in …
Tuesday, 14 February 2017 06:23
Sluggish growth for Twitter; reports Q4 2016 net loss of $167 million
Twitter recently reported a net loss in the fourth quarter of 2016 of $167 million, after a $90 million deficit in the corresponding period a year ago. The company's shares dropped more than 12 percent to close at $16.41 as investor hopes faded for a revival of the micro-blogging platform, which has been lagging behind its social media rivals. Revenue in Q4 2016 rose one percent for Twitter to $717 million. The crucial area of user growth saw Twitter end…
Monday, 06 February 2017 13:12
Yahoo Japan reports strong earnings; attributes smartphone advertising
Yahoo Japan Corp., formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! and the Japanese company SoftBank, saw its latest quarterly earnings jump the most since 2013. The company attributed the earnings to growth in advertising and online shopping via smartphones. Yahoo Japan shares surged as much as 17 percent in Tokyo and hit their daily upper price limit, according to Yahoo Finance. The shares were “15 percent higher as of 10:35 a.m. – adding about $3.4 billion…
