Internet

German $6 bln non-LBO is sign of lean buyout times

15 February 2019

Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone are buying classifieds group Scout24. They can’t pile much debt on it, and the return looks way off the level investors usually expect. With buckets of cash, private equity needs to do deals. Buying fast-growing targets offer a little security.

Amazon, NYC shoot selves and each other in foot

14 February 2019

Jeff Bezos’s company is ditching its Big Apple HQ plan after local opposition to the $3 bln in incentives it would receive. It makes Amazon look short-term greedy and uninterested in community concerns. Punchy politicians, meanwhile, have cost the city jobs and tax revenue.

Hadas: Four principles for regulating the internet

14 February 2019

The web needs watchdogs, and they need guidelines. Make internet operations a privilege, not a right. Replace neutrality with a duty of care. Keep big data within strict limits. Provide ample honest information. These ideas will make the internet less profitable, but much better.

SoftBank’s Einstein pitch fails relativity test

6 February 2019

Masayoshi Son invoked the Nobel Prize winner’s theories to argue the Japanese group is worth $110 bln more. But adjust his sums for low liquidity and the possibility of squandered cash, and the black hole is small. Massive objects like the Vision Fund distort the laws of physics.

Singapore’s Grab tempts headquarters curse

1 February 2019

The ride-hailing app plans to occupy a newly designed $135 mln building, under an 11-year lease. From Myspace to Yahoo, lavish moves have been a bad omen. Grab has cash, but is young, unprofitable and in a fierce rivalry with Go-Jek. Tech optimism may have gone too far again.

Big Brother startups offer white knuckle returns

24 January 2019

Facial recognition startups SenseTime and Megvii are in fundraising mode. Video surveillance in China is tipped to be a $20 bln industry by 2022. Sticky questions could result in volatile valuations, but Beijing’s resolve to watch its citizens closely will drive growth.

Elliott puts eBay’s parts up for auction

22 January 2019

The $30 bln online merchant has a history of spinning off bits of itself. It has, though, missed opportunities in its core business. While the activist may persuade eBay to offload StubHub, for example, the big payoff could be selling the marketplace unit to a buyer like Walmart.

PetSmart shows lenders need more bite than bark

9 January 2019

Apollo Global helped finance the private-equity-owned company, only to see it transfer part of a key subsidiary to owner BC Partners as a dividend. Now Apollo is suing to get the assets back on leash. Lenders would do better to insist on much tighter covenants from the get-go.

Superapps will starve the rest in Southeast Asia

2 January 2019

Cash is being lavished on giants, Grab and Go-Jek, which dabble in everything from ride-hailing to groceries. It’s a Chinese approach to snaring online consumers. As investors follow SoftBank and Tencent’s seal, the gap will widen between these “do it all” outfits and the rest.

ASOS bloodbath undermines online saviour status

17 December 2018

The fashion group’s grim outlook knocked 40 pct off its shares. Internet retailers were supposed to be more robust than bricks-and-mortar peers, which have high staff and rent costs. Rising competition and fickle customers suggest slower growth and lower margins are here to stay.

Review: The attack of the killer fridges has begun

14 December 2018

The world is ever more connected via the internet, from cars and power grids to home appliances and toys. That means ever more things are dangerously hackable, security expert Bruce Schneier writes in “Click Here to Kill Everybody.” His title isn’t as hyperbolic as it may sound.

Google finds Congress still searching for a clue

11 December 2018

U.S. lawmakers who grilled company chief Sundar Pichai failed to land a blow, and showed themselves ill informed about what the search engine actually does. The knowledge gap is risky for tech firms, because it increases the risk of regulation that misses the mark.

Yelp activist push is worthy of five stars

10 December 2018

The $3 bln online review site has gone through management fumbles, fierce competition and a slumping share price. No wonder investor SQN is calling for fresh thinking. With Google and Facebook fighting bigger battles, Yelp should be doing better at winning over small advertisers.

Three roads lead to three $830 bln-ish values

6 December 2018

Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.com are neck-and-neck as the biggest companies by market cap. The valuations of the mature iPhone cash cow, enterprise-software giant and e-commerce behemoth may be similar, but they reflect the rock-paper-scissors opportunities and risks each faces.

Mark Zuckerberg pushes wrong kind of independence

15 November 2018

Facebook’s CEO is setting up an external committee to police fake news and hateful content after more revelations about how he and others dealt with Russian meddling. But outsourcing decisions won’t fix Facebook’s culture. Removing Zuckerberg as chair would be a good first step.

Snap shareholders deserve little sympathy

14 November 2018

Some are suing the social-media firm for misleading them before its IPO about competition from Instagram. Now U.S. watchdogs are conducting a probe. Bad conduct deserves punishment. But investors willingly bought stock with no rights in an immature company with lots of rivals.

Google staff protests point to growing labor clout

2 November 2018

They were aimed at the company’s failures in tackling sexual harassment. Ditto at McDonald’s a few weeks ago. When executives at such different firms have to listen, though, it’s another sign – backed up by the latest U.S. jobs data – that workers are becoming a scarce commodity.

China’s advertising giants face white space

31 October 2018

With a slowing economy, marketing teams will pull back on ad spend. That will hit sales growth for search titan Baidu and microblog Weibo. The squeeze, alongside Google's mooted return to China, threatens to exacerbate the tech selloff and puts fresh importance on the race to diversify.

Alphabet ad machine aids Tim Cook’s data case

25 October 2018

The Google parent raked in more revenue and profit during the third quarter. The stronger the $730 bln firm gets, the more scrutiny it will attract from watchdogs who want to safeguard consumer data. The Apple boss’s call for tighter privacy restrictions is a telling sign.

Facebook hires one weapon for two-handed fight

19 October 2018

Nick Clegg, former UK deputy PM, will lead global affairs at the $450 bln social network. His anti-Brexit stance and EU background could help with tribulations in Brussels. But he’s an odd choice to deal with Washington, where scrutiny may intensify after the midterm elections.