Reuters/Dado Ruvic Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) users will soon have more flexibility in writing tweets because the company plans to stop including photos and links as part of its 140-character limit, according to a Bloomberg report. The social media platform has faced stagnant user growth. Months earlier, Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said the company would simplify its product in an effort to attract new users. […]
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) revealed a more than $1 billion stake in Apple Inc (AAPL.O) in a rare foray into the technology sector, which Buffett has largely shunned apart from a poorly performing investment in IBM (IBM.N). Shares of Apple rose 3.7 percent on the news, closing up $3.36 at $93.88. Berkshire made its investment in the first quarter, before the iPhone maker in April […]
Reuters/Denis Balibouse/File photo SAN FRANCISCO Warren Buffett struck media gold with a 2012 investment in debt-laden Media General Inc. Now the famed investor may try to reprise that success by supporting a bid for Yahoo Inc’s Internet assets. The Berkshire Hathaway Inc chairman is backing a consortium that includes Quicken Loans Inc founder Dan Gilbert, that is seeking to buy Yahoo’s online portfolio, Reuters reported […]
SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) $1 billion investment in Chinese ride sharing company Didi Chuxing intensifies a race to acquire technology, talent and market access in a rapidly evolving global personal transportation market. Apple’s investment comes as auto and technology industry executives and investors are placing bets that self-driving car systems, electric vehicles and ride sharing will eventually converge to allow companies to sell rides in self-driving vehicles, […]
A new study from Microsoft has found that organizations now rely more on digital infrastructures than they do on physical infrastructures. The findings indicate that cloud deployment models have now overtaken any other type of deployment in the technology sector, according to the company, which asked tech research firm 451 Research to conduct the study. “As organizations prepare for major business and technology changes, they will depend […]
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook speaks during a event for students to learn to write computer code at the Apple store in the Manhattan borough of New York December 9, 2015. Reuters/Carlo Allegri/Files Apple Inc said on Thursday it has invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, a move that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said would help the company better understand the […]
German tech giant SAP said that it will be expanding the enterprise offerings available on its HANA Cloud Platform for Internet of Things (IoT). Making the announcement at the IoT World 2016 conference being held in Santa Clara, Calif., this week, SAP said the new offerings will be focused on helping enterprises provide new customer outcomes. “SAP is helping customers map their journeys through digital transformation, and […]
INTERNATIONAL. /PRNewswire/ — The CFO has never been held more accountable for the company’s success, and the ability of finance teams to extract value from company data is the key to delivering on the chief executive’s expectations. Oracle’s study, Modern Finance: Driving Transformation from Within, found that closer alignment between the CFO and CIO is crucial if finance leaders are to effectively help the business achieve its […]
UAE. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region witnessed only two IPOs raising US$615.0m in Q1 2016, representing another quarter with limited IPO activity, according to EY. Capital raised through MENA firms in Q1 2016 increased by 141%, while the number of IPOs were consistent (2 IPOs), compared with Q1 2015. Phil Gandier, MENA Transactions Leader, EY, says: “Q1 2016 witnessed limited IPO activity, in line […]
|By Matein Khalid| The April payrolls data demonstrated that US economic growth has hit a soft patch. The US economy only added 160 jobs in April, less than the expected 203,000 average in the first three months of 2016. One disappointing data point does not imply a macroeconomic trend reversal since the US economy added 2.8 million jobs between March 2015 and March 2016. Statistical and measurement errors […]
The workplace chat app Slack is making a move to leave a mark on enterprise apps of all kinds. Today, the company announced that it’s rolling out a new feature called Sign in with Slack. The feature lets Slack users sign into and use other apps with the same identities they use with Slack. Sign in with Slack is a way to keep teams connected across the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The UAE has earned the distinction of being the fastest growing market in the world for card transactions. The UAE is a clear front runner in a rapidly expanding regional payment environment as card transactions experienced an estimated 10 percent growth in 2015 compared to the previous year, amid a total 24 per cent growth in the MEA region, making it the fastest expansion rate in card transactions in […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|In further signs of consolidation by pro-reform Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered the replacement of his central bank chief and Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, the most influential personality of the oil industry yet. The moves are understood to be influenced by the sweeping economic changes spearheaded by the Deputy Crown Prince as part of his visionary plan […]
|By Matein Khalid| Habib Bank Ltd is one of the Pakistan’s oldest, biggest retail/corporate banks, privatized last year with a 51% controlling stake held by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development. Its recent price fall from 240 to 172 rupees (PKR, not INR!) is a compelling opportunity to own an undervalued, well managed proxy for consumption and credit offtake in a 190 million population country now […]
A cushy government job, cheap fuel, a mortgage-free home and a bit of five-star travel and luxury shopping were never too much to expect in the Gulf. Yet what previously was taken for granted in the oil-rich region is being replaced by something more familiar to the western world: spending cuts, taxation, a scarcity of jobs and even strikes. There’s discontentment among young populations rarely seen before […]
|By Matein Khalid| After five years of pathetic under-performance, emerging markets are easily the asset class to own in 2016, as Europe is hit by a resurgent Euro/Italian banking woes and Japan by institutional gaijin selling and a stronger yen. A dovish Janet Yellen has talked down the US dollar and deferred the timing of FOMC interest rate hikes. The Chinese Politburo and People’s Bank have managed to […]
An Apple iphone 6 with Apple Pay is shown in this photo illustration in Encinitas , California June 3, 2015. Reuters/Mike Blake SAN FRANCISCO Apple Inc’s first-ever drop in quarterly iPhone sales has spurred Chief Executive Tim Cook to turn the spotlight on prospects for its services business, but the field is rife with competition and may prove challenging for a brand based on gadgets. Second-quarter earnings […]
Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Tuesday posted its first-ever decline in iPhone sales and its first revenue drop in 13 years as the company credited with inventing the smartphone struggles with an increasingly saturated market. The company’s sales dropped by more than a quarter in China, its most important market after the United States, and it also forecast another disappointing quarter for global revenues. Its shares fell about […]
Technology stocks are cooling, and that could be bad news for the world’s most valuable company. Apple Inc. warned investors this week that its quarterly earnings report will contain bad news about iPhone sales. How bad? That remains to be seen. According to its January forecast, Apple’s revenue is set to drop for the first time in more than a decade as iPhone sales slow. Even though […]
Saudi Arabia’s plan for the post-hydrocarbon era will have to overcome habits developed over decades of relying on crude sales to fuel economic growth, create job and build infrastructure. Almost eight decades after oil was first found in the country, officials are set to unveil Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia” on Monday, a blueprint seeking to reduce the reliance […]
BANGKOK After more than two years of riding high on growing demand for cloud data storage, Thailand’s hard disk drive exporters are bracing for a fall from grace. Data due later on Monday will likely show Thai exports of hard disk drives (HDDs) in March extended a run of double-digit growth after jumping 45 percent in the first two months of 2016 to $1.1 billion. The rise […]
UAE. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, today released its first quarter (Q1 2016) Dubai Real Estate Market Overview report, assessing the latest trends in the office, residential, retail and hotel sectors. In Q1 2016, it has been observed that most segments continue to soften across the Dubai market, but long term outlook still remains positive due to future growth drivers. Commenting on […]
INTERNATIONAL. There are now approximately 1,300 corporate venture funds worldwide and in 2015 US$28b of corporate venture capital (CVC) flowed into over 1,300 deals across a range of sectors[1]. The growth in the CVC market is explored in a new EY report, The Innovation Paradox, which, through data analysis and in-depth interviews with a range of corporate fund managers, looks at the variety of strategies, approaches and […]
|By Dr Xiaoxi He, Technology Analyst, IDTechEx| Many interests have been raised within the battery business in 2015 through a number of activities: the launch of Tesla’s Powerwall with low prices supported by the capability of Gigafactory, Apple’s patent relating to charging and managing power in a device with solid-state batteries, LG Chem’s opening of a mega battery plant in Nanjing, Bosch’s purchase of polymer solid-state battery companySeeo, etc. Not to mention the tremendous number of investment, acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures. At the same time, new battery technologies are appearing […]
