Technology

IBM understands the art of the deal

16 Nov 2016

Boss Ginni Rometty pitched President-elect Donald Trump with a job-training program, IT efficiency and a tax cut. They'd be good for IBM, and maybe even America. Conspicuously missing from her letter, however, is any mention of how Watson is bound to displace many workers.

JD’s $7 bln spinoff keeps investors in the dark

16 Nov 2016

The Chinese web retailer plans to sell its finance arm to a group of local investors including JD CEO Richard Liu. Offloading the loss-making subsidiary will help margins, but absent more detail on the unit's performance, shareholders can't tell if they will get a good deal.

Quest for Arabian tech unicorn could end in mirage

14 Nov 2016

Dubai's Mohamed Alabbar is hoping to create a Middle Eastern rival to Amazon. The real estate mogul and Saudi's sovereign fund are leading a $1-billion investment in a new online retailer. But the region's limited number of well-off web shoppers may limit the new venture's scale.

Samsung buys $8 bln shortcut to smart car market

14 Nov 2016

The South Korean group is buying U.S. car component maker Harman in its biggest-ever deal. As cellphone growth slows, Samsung is betting big on "connected" auto technology. Harman's dominant market share and relationships with carmakers should put Samsung at the head of the pack.

Siemens pays full price for extra pixels

14 Nov 2016

The German engineer is buying U.S. software maker Mentor Graphics for $4.5 bln including debt. Adding electronic design automation software to its digital offering makes sense. For the deal to add value, however, Siemens will have to outperform its own target for extra sales.

Russia’s fight with LinkedIn may see it LeftOut

11 Nov 2016

A court backed the blocking of the U.S. networking site, just as antitrust watchdogs opened a probe into Microsoft at the behest of antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab. Western tech companies won't want to abandon Russia, but if necessary, they can. The country will suffer for it.

Alibaba digs itself deeper into a data hole

11 Nov 2016

The Chinese group wants the market to focus less on the sales handled by its websites and more on actual revenue. But it also boasts about doing $5 bln of business in the first hour of Singles' Day, the Chinese answer to Black Friday. The mixed message is confusing for investors.

China’s boldest billionaire starts to face reality

8 Nov 2016

Jia Yueting has written to staff acknowledging his Netflix-to-Tesla empire grew too fast and faces a cash crunch. His candour about LeEco's struggles is welcome. The odds of simultaneously succeeding in TVs, smartphones, electric cars, sport and video-streaming remain very long.

Lenovo could follow Dell’s buyout blueprint

4 Nov 2016

Sales keep falling at the Chinese PC giant, and its stock has shed nearly 40 pct this year. If Lenovo's bosses and main shareholder think the market is too pessimistic about its turnaround, there is a ready-made solution: mimic U.S. rival Dell and take the $7 bln group private.

Hong Kong can stand up to Jack Ma

4 Nov 2016

Jack Ma has threatened to list the $60 bln Ant Financial elsewhere if Hong Kong won't innovate. That sounds like code for allowing something like the special sway he enjoys over Alibaba. Conceding to Ma won't fix the exchange's problems. Nor does Ant have someplace better to go.

Carmakers get stuck in irrational R&D pile-up

2 Nov 2016

VW spends more on research than Apple, showing carmakers are among the most generous companies with their R&D budgets. Making cars cleaner, safer and autonomous is a must, but too many engineers are reinventing the same wheel. They would do better to team up.

Alibaba’s big data ambitions become an easier sell

2 Nov 2016

Cloud, media and things other than online retail now make up almost a fifth of the e-commerce giant's total revenue. Alibaba's shift from being a shopping platform to a data and content firm is still a work in progress, but boss Jack Ma's vision is looking increasingly plausible.

Goldman has lucky escape from tech wreck

2 Nov 2016

Tech valuations present pitfalls for banks. Goldman Sachs valued Powa Technologies at up to $18 bln a few months before the UK payments app firm entered administration. Though Goldman was never hired, the disclosure is embarrassing - its recommendations carry significant weight.

Hexagon CEO probe adds to Swedish governance murk

31 Oct 2016

Norwegian authorities have detained the $13 bln Swedish IT company's boss, Ola Rollen, for suspected insider trading. Rollen, who denies the charges, has grown Hexagon's market cap over 50-fold. After misdeeds at the likes of Swedbank, local scandals are no longer even a shock.

Hadas: The left behind can’t blame globalisation

31 Oct 2016

Has the rise of cheap labour in poor countries harmed unskilled workers in rich lands? Sure, but it’s a new twist of an old story - technological unemployment. Even though the problems are fairly easy to solve, governments continue to fail many of the latest losers.

Alibaba label fails to stick on courier IPO debut

28 Oct 2016

Shares of China’s ZTO Express fell 15 pct on their debut in New York. Aggressive pricing is mostly to blame. Justifying an e-commerce style premium for a logistics firm was a tough sell to begin with. ZTO lacks the margins and dominance of Jack Ma's giant to be delivered as such.

GE plays tactical hardball with Elliott

27 Oct 2016

The U.S. industrial firm is feuding with the hedge fund over two 3D-printing companies. It refused to cave in to Elliott on one, opting for a rival instead, and raised its bid on the other. This is a decent enough compromise and will stop activists from seeing GE as easy prey.

Samsung heir’s new job comes with tough to-do list

27 Oct 2016

Shareholders put Jay Y. Lee, son of the electronics group's patriarch, on the board. That makes his role official just as Samsung grapples with the Note 7 fallout and an activist investor's demands. Lee's accountability and signs of greater transparency come at the right time.

SoftBank’s $100 bln VC dream requires creativity

26 Oct 2016

Masayoshi Son's group has pledged a quarter of the total touted for a giant technology fund venture with the Saudis. That's a lot for a company with a strained balance sheet. But fees from the fund, hybrid bond issues and asset sales mean Son has plenty of ways to find cash.

China’s “bicycle Ubers” worth taking for a spin

25 Oct 2016

MoBike and ofo are billed as sexy pedal-powered answers to the ride-hailing app. The startups, backed by local tech giants, are actually asset heavy and capital-intensive. They face unique risks, but pairing smart hardware with rental economics justifies some enthusiasm.