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Technology

Capital Calls: Ocado in South Korea

1 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $6 bln online grocer’s shares surged almost 40% after it announced a partnership with Lotte Shopping, showing that its strategy of building warehouses for global supermarkets may have legs.

Tesla investors have reasons to fret over Twitter

31 Oct 2022

Boss Elon Musk’s new $44 bln social-media toy offers the potential benefit someday of being hitched to an “everything app.” That possibility looks slim, however, compared to the risks of divided attention, conflicts of interest and geopolitical blowback to the whole empire.

Capital Calls: Axing the tweeps

31 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: Elon Musk looks set to eliminate jobs en masse at Twitter, which augurs significant downsizing across Silicon Valley.

Foxconn factory chaos bursts China’s Covid bubble

31 Oct 2022

The Apple supplier is scrambling to stem a potential 30% fall in iPhone shipments from a key factory as workers flee infection controls. Such disruptions are a recurrent risk under Beijing’s pandemic policy. It’s a big incentive to shift supply chains elsewhere, however painful.

Apple isn’t safe when neighborhood is aflame

27 Oct 2022

The iPhone maker’s steady growth and policy of returning cash looks far more attractive than cyclical and splurging peers like Meta Platforms. Yet a rising dollar and declining consumer demand are making Apple’s valuation far less attractive than it used to be.

Amazon gets irrationally swept up in tech angst

27 Oct 2022

The online retailer lost $200 bln of market value after its Christmas outlook spooked investors. The results are decent, however, with strong contributions from retail and cloud. A fresh focus by fund managers on profit diverges from the company’s ethos, which poses a problem.

Tesla’s China price cut plays offence and defence

27 Oct 2022

Elon Musk’s $700 bln carmaker says lower production expenses prompted it to lop up to 9% off the cost of vehicles in the country. But it also smacks of a price war in the world’s largest auto market where BYD is gaining ground. Either way, the move sends strong signals to rivals.

Alphabet properly preps its books for a downturn

25 Oct 2022

The company’s quarterly revenue growth slowed to 6%, the worst performance since the pandemic. But compared to rivals, the $1.3 trln giant taps a variety of sources for ad dollars and has been comparably conservative with hires. A looming downturn will be a little less painful.

Microsoft’s melancholy largely out of its hands

25 Oct 2022

The $1.9 trln software giant has been hit by three woes: Consumers are overstuffed with pandemic PC purchases, a strong dollar is reducing overseas revenue, and web services growth is slowing as businesses retrench. Shareholders just have to sit tight.

Big Tech risks a reversion to Web Finance 1.0

24 Oct 2022

Meta, Alphabet and Twitter were noobs to the ad game during the last recession. Back in 2009, digital claimed just a 16% share. Now, the online giants are far more heavily exposed to deep marketing budget cuts. With costs also out of whack, it could start to feel more like 2000.

Tesla’s Apple-sized goals have cash risks

19 Oct 2022

The electric-vehicle leader’s growth keeps it on track to have iPhone-like dominance of its industry. That could justify its $700 bln valuation, unless worrying signs that demand might be flagging transpire. In that context, returning cash to shareholders is a bad idea.

Mobileye sees IPO market with surprising clarity

18 Oct 2022

Five years after buying the auto tech developer, Intel is taking it public again. A shaky market and the chipmaker’s special voting stock support the swift 68% drop in valuation expectations, to the same $15 bln it originally paid. Desperation has a way of sharpening focus.

Debt adds to the heap of media problems

18 Oct 2022

Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros.’ leverage ratios are above the median for peers as the chances for a recession increases. That's as an economic slump pressures advertising and subscriptions. It bodes ill for cash gobbling streaming services.

Capital Calls: Netflix struts

18 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $109 bln streaming service reversed its subscriber losing streak and reminded rivals of its first-mover advantage.

Elon Musk’s second run at his $44 bln Twitter deal

13 Oct 2022

A judge in Delaware has given the Tesla CEO until the end of the month to make good on his vow to buy the social media giant. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists delve into the many twists of this M&A saga, Musk’s options, and what’s likely to happen next.

Capital Calls: TSMC

13 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $324 bln Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing barely addressed questions regarding U.S. technology export controls on China during its earnings call.

Philips’ supply shock will haunt earnings season

12 Oct 2022

The medical-kit maker lost more than 7% of its value after saying chip shortages curbed sales. It’s a setback for the ailing group’s turnaround under new CEO Roy Jakobs. For automotive and manufacturing companies, it’s a sign that supply bottlenecks may last longer than hoped.

There’s method to Saudi’s $38 bln gaming madness

11 Oct 2022

Riyadh says it will splash out to become “the ultimate global hub” for gaming by 2030. Saudi and the freewheeling sector are peculiar bedfellows. But with a petrodollar windfall and falling valuations, the kingdom has a good opportunity to make its unlikely vision happen.