Tech

Kuaishou’s comeback gets unwanted Beijing cameo

30 Mar 2022

The $43 bln video-streaming outfit reckons its China business can break even this year. That would please investors, who have seen the stock crater 70%. But reports of regulators readying new rules spell more shareholder pain. Kuaishou’s turnaround may need some rewrites.

Singapore’s rebalancing is delicate act

30 Mar 2022

The pandemic burnished its safe-haven role for rich Asians, but it is flourishing as a centre for Chinese wealth creation too. Even as changing flows of people, business, and money sharpen social challenges, the pivot is restoring the Lion City’s animal spirits.

Uber, Lyft grease driver’s pockets with surcharge

29 Mar 2022

The ride-hailing firms added a 55 cents per-trip surcharge to offset a 50% spike in fuel prices. That should cover the bump in gas and then some. Both firms are competing in a tight labor market, so it’s a start. But they may find they have to open their wallets, too.

Capital Calls: Gas stimulus

25 Mar 2022

Concise views on global finance: Direct payments to drivers are better than fuel tax cuts, but neither is ideal.

GIF inventor made few rich, but billions happy

24 Mar 2022

Steve Wilhite, who died aged 74, created a way for images to be easily shared and used in websites. The patents lapsed, and his employer CompuServe slipped into obscurity, yet GIFs remain ubiquitous – marking their inventor as one of tech’s great accidental philanthropists.

Toshiba task becomes more Sisyphean

24 Mar 2022

The Japanese conglomerate’s shareholders rejected management’s breakup plan and a hedge fund proposal to solicit buyout bids. It augurs fresh fighting over the board and the strategy. Outside agitators have reason for optimism but the long fight keeps eating away at returns.

Capital Calls: Renault out of Russia

24 Mar 2022

Concise views on global finance: Dire prospects for the sanctioned economy make the French carmaker’s decision to leave rational, but costly.

Private credit funds take page from start-up book

23 Mar 2022

Lending to deals like Thoma Bravo’s $11 bln purchase of Anaplan – which has no operating cash flow – is toxic for big banks. But private credit funds are signing up. They may be trying to disrupt lending markets while gaining clients. That sounds a lot like a risky tech model.

China’s technology emperors have no clothes

23 Mar 2022

Crackdowns are crushing valuations at the likes of Tencent and Alibaba. As smaller companies struggle to find profitability and established giants face lengthening slogs to both grow and improve margins, once-credulous investors are discovering how uncomfortably exposed they are.

EU’s faster, harder stick will whack U.S. big tech

22 Mar 2022

Existing antitrust law is too slow to prevent digital monopolies and too weak to create competition. New European rules, with a focus on prevention, will remedy that. The market is big enough and potential penalties so damaging that Apple and others need to take notice.

SoftBank’s Cruise exit hits self-driving cars hard

21 Mar 2022

Selling its Vision Fund stake in the autonomous unit to largest owner GM is a reminder of the Japanese group’s woes. And the carmaker had to inject $3.5 bln it could have used elsewhere. Any lingering hope that driverless cars are just around the corner is the biggest casualty.

A TuSimple China reversal would be hard to follow

18 Mar 2022

The $3 bln autonomous-truck upstart may sell its unit in the People's Republic. Splitting the Chinese-run firm would allay data concerns. Partners like UPS and better prospects make its U.S. business more appealing. Other Chinese entrepreneurs would struggle to take such an exit.

China’s finance technocrats grab back the mic

16 Mar 2022

Vice Premier Liu He wants government agencies to coordinate any new policies that might impact markets with financial watchdogs first. That’s music to the ears of investors tired of endless, roving crackdowns. Tech companies in particular will pray Liu wins this turf war.

GoTo IPO will road-test range of tech rout

15 Mar 2022

The SoftBank-backed superapp is eyeing a $29 bln valuation in a Jakarta listing. Given rival Grab’s disastrous New York debut and Sea’s share price plunge, the timing may bruise its new backers. But waiting much longer risks eroding GoTo’s strong market position.

Tencent’s Beijing woes make case for breakup

15 Mar 2022

The Chinese titan may be in hot water over money laundering breaches on its payments-to-messaging WeChat app. Censors are also targeting its video-games cash cow, adding to a $400 bln selloff. Spinning off the latter would be a simple way to isolate mounting regulatory risks.

India’s food super-app hits new gluttonous heights

14 Mar 2022

Food delivery group Swiggy’s ramp up of its rapid grocery service is locking in higher-spending users, giving the Prosus-backed firm an edge over Zomato. But the tech rout and ugly economics of speedy deliveries suggest a $10 bln valuation is better served up in private markets.

VCs are victims of their own success

8 Mar 2022

That’s an argument author Sebastian Mallaby makes in his new book on the financiers behind the world’s technology giants. He also discusses the role of luck, founders’ increasing power, late-stage investment pile-on risks and Chinese tech in this episode of The Exchange podcast.

Toshiba gets its own taste of investor impatience

8 Mar 2022

The Japanese conglomerate has urged chipmaker Kioxia and majority owner Bain to revive an IPO as quickly as possible. It’s eager to cash in a 41% stake as Toshiba’s own aggrieved shareholders push back on a breakup plan. At least the buyout shop will prioritise maximising value.

China’s parliament can justify new rubber stamp

4 Mar 2022

The week-long annual joint sessions are usually scripted, back-slapping affairs. This year’s agenda might be hurriedly rewritten as Ukraine and Hong Kong’s Covid outbreak disrupt plans. It’s a chance to reset Beijing’s approach to the pandemic, the West and economic challenges.

Capital Calls: Argentina, Oligarch yachts

4 Mar 2022

Concise views on global finance: Argentina’s $45 bln debt deal is hope trumping experience; Floating assets sometimes worth more than $500 million each are worthy sanctions targets.