TECHNOLOGY
Square sells delivery app
Square Inc is selling its Caviar food-delivery app to DoorDash Inc for US$410 million, as the money-losing payments company searches for profits. The sale was on Thursday disclosed as part of Square’s quarterly financial report, which failed to impress investors. The stock fell as much as 9 percent in extended trading. The San Francisco-based company gave a third-quarter profit forecast of US$0.18 to US$0.20 a share, trailing the average analyst estimate of US$0.22. It said adjusted revenue in the period would be US$590 million to US$600 million, compared with estimates of US$599.5 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Caviar deal is a boost for DoorDash, already the most popular food delivery app in the US.
TELECOMS
Texas joins takeover fight
Texas has joined more than a dozen US states that are suing to stop T-Mobile’s US$26.5 billion takeover of rival cellphone company Sprint Corp, arguing that the deal is bad for consumers, because it would reduce competition. Texas’ attorney general is the first Republican to join the group, which now consists of 14 states and the District of Columbia. California, New York and Texas are leading the states’ case. The US Department of Justice approved the deal last week alongside five Republican state attorneys general who were not involved in the states’ case. The federal government’s conditions would make satellite-TV company Dish Network Corp a new US wireless provider. Critics worry that the deal would still lead to higher prices and fewer consumer perks, because Dish would be a weaker competitor than Sprint currently is.
ELECTRONICS
GoPro ups revenue forecast
GoPro Inc on Thursday raised its revenue forecast for this year, as the action camera maker bets on new releases later this year and helping shares reverse course to trade up 5 percent. The company on a post-earnings call said that it expected full-year revenue to grow 9 to 12 percent, up from prior forecast of a 7 to 10 percent rise. GoPro last year launched the Hero 7 White, Hero 7 Silver and Hero 7 Black as part of its holiday lineup, which helped the company report its first profit in five quarters. Revenue rose 3 percent to US$292 million, while analysts’ on average had estimated US$302.3 million, according to Institutional Brokers’ Estimate System data from Refinitiv. Net loss narrowed to US$11 million, or US$0.08 per share, from US$37.3 million, or US$0.27 per share, a year earlier.
BANKING
Investors dump RBS shares
State-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) boosted profits in the first half of this year, but a warning on future profitability saw investors dump its shares yesterday. The bank said net profit soared to £1.3 billion (US$1.6 billion) from £96 million in the same period last year, when it was forced to book part of the massive US$4.9 billion in fines paid for its role in the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. At the same time RBS managed to increase revenues by 20 percent in the second quarter to £4.1 billion, and increased lending despite growing uncertainty about Brexit. “Given the uncertain and competitive environment, we are focused on the areas we can control; costs are down, capital and liquidity are strong and we continue to grow lending to the real economy,” RBS chief executive Ross McEwan said. The bank announced a special dividend for shareholders worth £1.7 billion, but it also said that it would not meet next year’s profitability target.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”