The new Apple iPhone 6S and 6S Plus are displayed during an Apple media event in San Francisco, California, September 9, 2015. Reuters/Beck Diefenbach SAN FRANCISCO/SYDNEY A significant number of Apple Inc customers are reporting their mobile devices have crashed after attempting to upload the new iOS 9 operating system, the latest in a line of launch glitches for the tech giant. Twitter and other social media […]
Private equity funds managed by Blackstone is set to acquire a majority of Serco Group’s private sector business process outsourcing (BPO) operations. The definitive agreement will include the former Intelenet business, for a consideration of £250 million ($385.7 million), approximately INR2,558 crores, said a statement. The enterprise value of this deal represents the largest acquisition by Blackstone in India, it said. The business has expected annual revenues […]
|By Matein Khalid| The world’s emerging markets have been savaged by multiple economic, banking, currency and political shocks since 2011. Global emerging markets are far too diverse and nuanced to be analyzed as a single asset class but now trade at a 24% valuation discount to developed markets. The financial markets now price draconian scenarios for earnings, exports, sovereign credit, industrial production and economic growth. The shortage […]
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Amazon (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos unveiled plans on Tuesday to build a rocket manufacturing plant and launch site in Florida to better compete with fellow billionaires using their fortunes and tech prowess to open a new frontier in human space travel and exploration. Bezos’ space startup, Blue Origin, intends to invest more than $200 million to build the rocket-making facility adjacent to NASA’s Kennedy […]
The Cisco Systems logo is seen as part of a display at the Microsoft Ignite technology conference in Chicago, Illinois, May 4, 2015. Reuters/Jim Young/Files FRANKFURT Security researchers say they have uncovered clandestine attacks across three continents on the routers that direct traffic around the Internet, potentially allowing suspected cyberspies to harvest vast amounts of data while going undetected. In the attacks, a highly sophisticated form of […]
LEBANON. On Sept. 11, 2015, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services revised its outlook on the Republic of Lebanon to negative from stable. At the same time, we affirmed our ‘B-/B’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings. RATIONALE The outlook revision stems from our view that political uncertainty in Lebanon and regional tensions will continue to weigh on economic growth in the mediumterm. In […]
Middle East News Analysis By PETER BAKER and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS September 11, 2015 WASHINGTON — Having beaten back a congressional campaign to derail his nuclear agreement with Iran, President Obama now faces a panoply of challenges that may be just as daunting: making the deal actually work while repairing relations with disaffected allies and constraining Tehran’s regional ambitions. He got started Friday even as the House was still voting by announcing […]
Huawei, a leading information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, has launched a new Joint Innovation Center (JIC) in Saudi Arabia together with Saudi Aramco and King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). Located in Dhahran Techno Valley Innovation Center, the centre will be dedicated to the oil and gas industry, jointly working with the leading oil and gas company and the university, said a statement. […]
Video The Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton backed the Iran deal in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington on Wednesday. By DAVID E. SANGER and AMY CHOZICK September 9, 2015 WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday embraced the Iran nuclear deal that she paved the way for as secretary of state, but said it would work only “as part of a larger strategy toward Iran” that contained the […]
UAE. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, has today published a special report on the middle-income housing segment in the Middle East and North Africa region. The report highlights the social and economic impact of a marked shortfall in the required supply of middle-income housing, suggesting that significant efforts are needed to address the current imbalance. The report clearly outlines that this shortage […]
UAE. A report published today by international real estate advisor Savills has ranked the United States of America (USA), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Singapore respectively as the top three countries for residential investability on the basis of economic growth and market recovery. The new Savills World Residential Investability Ranking focuses on countries with cities and resort locations that have consistently attracted investor interest over recent […]
A customer points at a screen displaying a website of Alibaba’s Taobao at a rural service centre in Yuzhao Village, Tonglu, Zhejiang province, China, July 20, 2015. Reuters/Aly Song Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA.N) said on Tuesday it expected second-quarter gross merchandise volume (GMV) to be lower than its initial estimates due to weaker consumer spending in China. The company’s shares reversed course and slipped as much […]
|By Matein Khalid| The Federal Reserve could well raise its overnight borrowing rate at the next FOMC monetary policy conclave on September 17. Though contagion from China’s 40% stock market meltdown has triggered bear markets from Hong Kong to Frankfurt and plunged Asian/emerging markets equities into ta ghastly replay of 1998’s epic meltdown (General Suharto’s overthrow, the Russian rouble default, Malaysia’s capital controls, the run on the […]
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday rallied Republican opposition to President Obama’s agreement with Iran, denouncing it as a “shameful deal” that would risk a new Holocaust and possibly lead to the first nuclear attack since Nagasaki. In a full-throated speech to supporters at the American Enterprise Institute here, Mr. Cheney argued that Mr. Obama and his team had abandoned their own criteria for […]
|By TAP Staff| Undeterred by the decline in Dubai property market, Emaar Properties has launched the luxury ‘Creekside 18’ residences in The Island District of Dubai Creek Harbour, a one-of-its-kind modern master-planned community located along the historic Dubai Creek in the heart of the city. In close proximity to the Dubai International Airport and the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, Dubai Creek Harbour is located on a […]
DETROIT From his laboratory at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University, automated vehicle pioneer Raj Rajkumar says self-driving cars will evolve step-by-step, with humans staying in charge for a long time to come. More than 2,500 miles west in Mountain View, California, Chris Urmson, head of Google Inc’s self-driving car program since 2009, has a different view: A fully automated vehicle that requires no input or intervention from humans is […]
WASHINGTON — Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland on Wednesday came out in support of President Obama’s Iran nuclear accord, the 34th Democrat in favor. Her decision gave Mr. Obama the votes needed to assure the deal will survive a congressional challenge. “Some have suggested we reject this deal and impose unilateral sanctions to force Iran back to the table. But maintaining or stepping up sanctions will only […]
|By Matein Khalid| Hong Kong now trades at 9.6 times earnings and 0.86 book value. Hang Seng valuations were gutted by the protest movements in Central and the Shanghai financial meltdown. The Hang Seng index is down 25% since late May and now trades at six times forward earnings, its post Lehman, post 2014 bottom. Hong Kong trades at its lowest price/book value since the Asian flu […]
UAE. With a 54% decline in the price of oil prices during the past 12 months the United Arab Emirates (UAE) real estate market is now beginning to feel the effect with property transaction levels falling across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, according to the latest research from international real estate consultancy, Cluttons. Cluttons’ annual 2015 UAE Property Report reveals that the direct correlation between hydrocarbon revenues […]
UAE. Management in the Gulf need to take more risks and develop staff to think creatively, according to a new global innovation survey designed to help companies stop wasting their best ideas and flushing hundreds of billions of dollars down the drain. Announced in Abu Dhabi today by PA Consulting Group, the report highlights an overwhelming view that leadership of organisations in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and […]
Middle East Memo From the West Bank In the 10th year of a four-year term in the absence of national elections, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has lost the public’s confidence. A poll published on Tuesday showed trust in him falling to 16 percent from 22 percent in March. By JODI RUDOREN September 1, 2015 RAMALLAH, West Bank — Mahmoud Abbas, the aging Palestinian president, may be paving the way […]
Middle East Video Protesters took over the office of Lebanon’s environment minister in the capital on Tuesday, calling on him to resign for failing to find a solution to the garbage crisis. By ANNE BARNARD September 1, 2015 BEIRUT, Lebanon — Demonstrators from the “You Stink” movement, protesting a garbage pileup and political dysfunction, occupied the offices of Lebanon’s environment minister in downtown Beirut on Tuesday, declaring that they […]
Middle East By THOMAS ERDBRINK August 31, 2015 TEHRAN — Iranian security forces arrested a prominent reformist politician on Monday, hours after he held a news conference thanking President Hassan Rouhani for a more open political atmosphere, several Iranian news agencies reported. The arrest of the politician, Ali Shakorirad, put a damper on the hopes of Iran’s reformists. Just last week they launched the Islamic Iranian National Union Party, […]
A Microsoft logo is seen at a pop-up site for the new Windows 10 operating system at Roosevelt Field in Garden City, New York July 29, 2015. Reuters/Shannon Stapleton NEW YORK Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) avoided a potentially costly setback to its mobile phone business on Friday as the U.S. International Trade Commission declined to block the import of its devices in a longstanding patent dispute. The decision […]
