INTERNET
INTERNETAmazon wins cloud deals
Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing division of Amazon.com Inc, signed new deals with customers SAP SE and Symantec Corp worth a combined US$1 billion, according to an internal memo, underscoring the company’s growing momentum in the market for Internet-based computing power and storage. The contracts are each worth US$500 million over five years, the text of an Amazon e-mail from last month acquired by Bloomberg showed. Both transactions represented expansions of existing partnerships.
LEISURE
Sim Leisure preparing IPO
Sim Leisure is planning a Singapore initial public offering (IPO) of its Malaysian theme park business, which offers water slides, dunk tanks and tree swings in the state of Penang. A sale of new and existing shares could raise about S$10 million to S$12 million (US$7.2 million to US$8.7 million), said Sim Choo Kheng (沈芝慶), the company’s founder and chief executive officer. Proceeds from the deal, which could take place by January, would be used to fund a new park in eastern China’s Shandong Province, he said on Monday. Sim Leisure is betting that traditional childhood activities like tree climbing, which the Malaysian park offers, will prove attractive elsewhere in Asia, he said.
RETAIL
Google echoes phone trends
Google’s new Pixel phones mirror the industry trend moving the devices toward lusher, bigger screens and add new twists on the camera for taking better selfies and other pictures. The third generation of Pixel phones comes in two sizes, and both feature high-definition screens that span from one edge to another. It is the first time Google has embraced the format, which Apple adopted last year with its ballyhooed iPhone X. Google is undercutting Apple on the pricing of its phones. The Pixel 3 will be available on Thursday next week with a starting price of US$799. That is US$200 below the least expensive iPhone XS.
TRANSPORTATION
Uber pitching bond offering
Uber Technologies Inc is sounding out investors on a US$1.5 billion bond sale less than seven months after it tapped the leveraged loan market in a self-led financing. The ride-hailing company might offer US$500 million of five-year notes and US$1 billion of eight-year bonds, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the deal is private. The shorter-term notes, which the company cannot buy back for two years, could yield about 7.5 percent, and the longer-dated securities, which cannot be bought back for three years, could yield about 8 percent, the people said.
INTERNET
Tencent loses top-10 spot
Chinese giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) has lost its spot as one of the world’s 10 biggest companies. After shedding more than US$200 billion in market value this year, more than any other company worldwide, Tencent has been replaced by Exxon Mobil Corp in the top of the rankings based on market capitalization. When its share price hit a record high in January, the Shenzhen-based company was in the top five along with Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc. Tencent returned more than 67,000 percent from its IPO through January, but then turned south this year on a run of bad news including a rare drop in profit and a regulatory crackdown on gaming in China. Tencent has tumbled nearly 40 percent in Hong Kong since Jan. 23.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment. The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam today, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said. The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power
Taiwan would remain in the same international network for carrying out cross-border payments and would not be marginalized on the world stage, despite jostling among international powers, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday. Yang made the remarks during a speech at an annual event organized by Financial Information Service Co (財金資訊), which oversees Taiwan’s banking, payment and settlement systems. “The US dollar will remain the world’s major cross-border payment tool, given its high liquidity, legality and safe-haven status,” Yang said. Russia is pushing for a new cross-border payment system and highlighted the issue during a BRICS summit in October. The existing system
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