Technology

EU offers vitamin pill to dying media patient

26 Aug 2016

Brussels wants to give media the right to seek compensation from search engines like Google that use online content.  The intention is laudable - some publishers may be losing out. But the proposal has similarities with schemes in Germany and Spain - which haven’t worked.

Beauty of selfie-app IPO is only skin deep

24 Aug 2016

Millions of young Chinese use Meitu to airbrush pictures, whitening their skin or applying virtual makeup. But the company is basically a small smartphone business made up to look like a big Internet player. A $700 mln Hong Kong IPO should be seen through a sceptical lens.

Intersil would be a high-octane deal for Renesas

23 Aug 2016

Buying the U.S. chipmaker would better position Renesas for the rise of the smart car. But a mooted $3 bln price tag for the power management specialist sounds high, even if Intersil is half-way through a turnaround. Renesas is steering itself towards a lacklustre return.

Tencent is sturdiest rock inside China’s firewall

18 Aug 2016

China's closed internet has allowed giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent to thrive. The fortunes of the trio are diverging, however. While Baidu has stumbled and Alibaba too often goes off track, Pony Ma's focus makes the $240 bln Tencent look like the best of the bunch.

Asian tech titans Hike to India’s unicorns

17 Aug 2016

WhatsApp rival Hike has joined a handful of local startups valued at over $1 bln with a fundraising led by China's Tencent and Taiwan's Foxconn. Even as global funding dries up, giants from the Far East are racing to dominate a market that offers exceptional size and openness.

China’s Netflix-to-Tesla is spread painfully thin

16 Aug 2016

Jia Yueting's LeEco is pushing into TVs, mobile handsets, electric vehicles and video-streaming. That poses huge financial and strategic challenges for his mostly private group. These are fast-moving, capital-intensive industries with very well-resourced competitors.  

Lyft’s off-ramp leads to General Motors

15 Aug 2016

The No. 2 U.S. ride-hailing service recently rebuffed takeover interest from its 9 pct owner. There are good reasons for Lyft to steer clear of Detroit, despite a shared vision for autonomous cars. But cash-flush rivals could yet force the Silicon Valley upstart into GM's lane.

Airlines add another crash to disaster scenarios

12 Aug 2016

Delta's tech meltdown is the latest in a string of industry IT failures. Some 2,100 flight cancellations are preferable to fatalities. But like air disasters, it stemmed from problems falling like dominos. Companies can do more, but such complex networks will always pose risks.

Alibaba notches up milestones and millstones

11 Aug 2016

The Chinese e-commerce giant's quarterly sales jumped 59 pct year on year, the highest since its IPO. Alibaba now gets more from each dollar of mobile sales than from desktop - and has upped its disclosure. It takes the edge off ongoing regulatory problems and logistics losses.

Samsung’s next leader faces two big challenges

11 Aug 2016

Heir apparent Jay Y. Lee is up against public mistrust and political uncertainty as he reshapes South Korea's top conglomerate. Fundamental questions of future growth also loom over the empire founded by his grandfather. How Lee navigates the two issues will determine his legacy.

Uber can take fight for rest of Asia up a gear

2 Aug 2016

After folding its China unit into rival Didi, the ride-hailing app can compete harder elsewhere in Asia. It is less far behind India's Ola and Grab in Southeast Asia. Uber must balance the conflicts this could create with Didi with the need to show global growth.

Uber reverses out of dead end in China

1 Aug 2016

The U.S. ride-hailing app is handing Uber China to larger local rival Didi Chuxing. In exchange, Uber gets 20 pct of an enlarged $35 bln group. It's a humiliating reversal after a high-profile battle. The combined group can cut back on subsidies and focus on turning a profit.

Chinese investors up the ante in online games

1 Aug 2016

Gaming outfit Shanghai Giant, Alibaba boss Jack Ma, and partners are buying Israel's Playtika for $4.4 bln. This looks pricier than Tencent's recent purchase of the firm behind Clash of Clans. Plus, casino-style games are even more at risk of being overtaken by the latest hit.

Review: Iran cyber hack opened a Pandora’s box

29 Jul 2016

The documentary "Zero Days" takes a thriller-style look at the unprecedented attack on the country's nuclear facilities using the Stuxnet virus. It shows the lack of norms in this new kind of war. What’s left unexplored is how companies have become fair game in cyber battles.

Baidu’s ad recovery is a work in progress

29 Jul 2016

Earnings at China's top search engine fell by over a third in the second quarter after a crackdown on healthcare advertising. Baidu says the setback is temporary and margins will recover. But other parts of its search business are vulnerable too. Investors may be too sanguine.

Alphabet may need to crank up spinoff machine

28 Jul 2016

Google's parent delivered another solid quarter thanks to its search and digital-advertising ubiquity. Such success may make outsiders wary of cooperating with the $525 bln firm's many side projects. Carving these out may be the answer, as it did with the maker of Pokemon GO.

Telecom Italia gives investors reasons to hope

27 Jul 2016

Fierce competition, Brazil and high debt levels are problems that don't easily go away. But Telecom Italia's new chief Flavio Cattaneo has seemingly improved things by sharply cutting costs. The group still faces challenges on many fronts, but it should be a nimble competitor.

Vizio buy stars China’s latest breed of web giants

27 Jul 2016

LeEco is buying the U.S. TV-maker for $2 bln. Little known outside of China, Jia Yueting's tech group is trying to take on Netflix, Apple and Tesla all at once. The unabashed global ambitions make it different from more established Chinese giants like Alibaba and Tencent.

Jack Dorsey may want to pull a Marissa Mayer soon

26 Jul 2016

The Twitter CEO's plan to get the $13 bln social-media firm to take wing has been mostly ineffective. Revenue and user growth are slowing. Now would be a good time to find a suitor. The human news feed could find a home on the island of misfit media assets Verizon is assembling.

Apple’s muted results belie building pressure

26 Jul 2016

With little reason for customers to update their iPhones, the $520 billion firm led by Tim Cook again reported declining quarterly sales. Yet favorable forces pile up with each mediocre result - existing handsets are aging, services growing, and investor expectations falling.