Tech

Capital Calls: Microsoft, AT&T, American Airlines

7 Dec 2021

Concise views on global finance: Microsoft is finally being scrutinized with Europe’s probe of its $16 bln Nuance deal; U.S. lawmakers have antitrust worries about the telecom firm’s Discovery deal; American Airlines’ retiring CEO leaves shareholders short-changed.

Alibaba’s new CFO signals shifting priorities

6 Dec 2021

The Chinese e-commerce company, whose market value has halved to $300 bln this year, is replacing finance chief Maggie Wu. During her seven-year tenure, Alibaba successfully courted foreign investors. Successor Toby Xu’s experience suggests there will be a greater focus at home.

Didi faces long and perilous journey to Hong Kong

3 Dec 2021

The $38 bln ride-hailing group is eschewing its New York listing for one in the Asian hub amid pressure from Beijing. A take-private would be costly; migrating American depositary receipts could be tricky. Didi will have to navigate Hong Kong's tougher IPO requirements too.

Alibaba looms larger than Beijing in Weibo IPO

3 Dec 2021

China's $8 bln answer to Twitter is readying a secondary listing in Hong Kong. The company’s sway over public opinion means it is a frequent target of censorship campaigns and regulatory crackdowns. That makes the e-commerce giant's 30% stake a political liability for both.

Super-app Grab gets rear-ended

3 Dec 2021

The group’s shares plunged 20% on debut following its $31 bln SPAC merger. Unlike China’s Didi or India’s Paytm, the crash wasn't so much its fault; the Altimeter- and Temasek-backed deal was well-enough constructed. But Grab is in a market pile-up that won’t clear soon.

SenseTime IPO could help HSBC gain recognition

26 Nov 2021

It’s the only Western lead adviser on the AI dragon’s mooted $2 bln Hong Kong market debut. The issuer’s spot on a U.S. blacklist adds a degree of difficulty to the large Chinese stock sale. That makes it an especially bold way to showcase renewed investment banking ambitions.

Pinduoduo’s strategy sows further seeds of doubt

25 Nov 2021

The Chinese e-commerce company rocketed to relevance by single-mindedly challenging Alibaba. Following policy crackdowns and rising costs, it’s expected to swing back to a quarterly operating loss. New boss Chen Lei would benefit from looking beyond farming for additional growth.

Paytm battering targets raw valuation underbelly

24 Nov 2021

India’s fintech giant is worth $13 bln after a 31% post-IPO drop. That remains exuberant at 26 times sales. The company is still growing, but revenue pressure is a concern, and costs are high. Success requires official help on fees and lending. That’s far from guaranteed.

Paytm IPO ends Morgan Stanley India winning streak

19 Nov 2021

The fintech firm’s 27% first-day drop contrasts with pops the Wall Street giant oversaw for Nykaa and others. Paytm execs and powerful buyers and sellers like Alibaba, SoftBank, and BlackRock all played a role in the fiasco. But as lead bank Morgan Stanley has most to lose.

Silicon Valley can’t slice and dice lower returns

29 Oct 2021

Veteran Sequoia is ditching its traditional VC model in favor of allowing the fund to hold assets indefinitely. It’s an effort to stay competitive as SPACs and others bid up unicorns. But extraordinary valuations and founders with the catbird seat can’t be papered over.

Sony seizes best of hardware and software worlds

28 Oct 2021

Sales of PlayStation consoles and other consumer electronics helped power quarterly sales to $21 bln. Games, music and movies shone too, as boss Kenichiro Yoshida doubles down on content. Even better for investors, a more cohesive strategy linking the different units is emerging.

Frankenstein’s watchdog can tame Big Tech monster

25 Oct 2021

Combining FCC-style oversight of U.S. broadcast stations with the OCC’s supervision of banks and FDA’s drug vetting could bring needed policing to firms like Facebook. Being regulated by an uber monitor is a nuisance. But it isn’t unprecedented and may even diffuse some vitriol.

Viewsroom: Electric-car global roundup; Facebook

7 Oct 2021

Rivian drops its IPO prospectus, Volvo readies its public market return, Hertz brings on a car guy and GM gets a thumbs up from Engine No. 1. Antony Currie puts it all together. And what does Facebook’s outage mean for shareholders? Gina Chon and Richard Beales weigh in.

Capital Calls: American healthcare exceptionalism

27 Sep 2021

Concise views on global finance: American male life expectancy at birth dropped over 2 years in 2020, the worst among 29 nations. That raises the stakes in a healthcare crisis among working-age people that even the mightiest U.S. employers have so far failed to solve.

China adds shades of grey to golden shares

6 Sep 2021

Beijing’s mooted investment into ride-hailing group Didi has templates in ByteDance and electric-vehicle maker Nio. But as a listed company not in financial distress, any official intervention to claim more rights over the data-rich giant is likely to feature on the darker side.

Xi’s common prosperity becomes financial black box

3 Sep 2021

Alibaba and Tencent have each pledged $16 bln to the Chinese president's cause. Investors, though, are in the dark on how these huge sums will be deployed. Along with higher taxes, regulatory fines, new laws on data and more, the cost of doing business is fundamentally changing.

Review: WeWork’s debacle had many enablers

6 Aug 2021

Founder Adam Neumann led the hyping-up of the office-sharing upstart, once purported to be worth nearly $50 bln. But he was far from alone. “The Cult of We” by Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell exposes how banks, return-chasing investors and the media danced around the red flags.

The Exchange: How UK’s vaccine taskforce did it

3 Aug 2021

Clive Dix was part of a crack team of business execs and scientists that secured Covid-19 jabs for Great Britain. They applied a venture capital approach that can be used to tackle other public sector challenges. The former chairman discusses lessons learned and looming threats.

Afterpay’s $29 bln Square deal taps new reality

2 Aug 2021

The instalment-payments darling has defied naysayers for years but faces fresh competition from PayPal and Apple. An all-stock takeover by Jack Dorsey’s fintech outfit comes at a discount to a recent valuation peak. Selling now, though, provides a better chance of success later.

Capital Calls: Covid fibs, M&A flop, Hard seltzer

23 Jul 2021

Concise views on global finance: Forcing social media to take down vaccine misinformation is a good step on U.S. content rules. Meanwhile, a German real estate deal fails to get enough shareholder votes, and Boston Beer’s hard seltzer sales fizzle.