Internet

Guest view: Japanese maverick bucks ROE revolution

25 January 2018

Just as corporate Japan starts to take return on equity seriously, a famed entrepreneur is headed off-course. Rakuten’s push into mobile under boss Hiroshi Mikitani will destroy shareholder wealth and shows up another supine Japanese board, argues investor Kisalaya Singh.

The Twitter egg is not a management strategy

23 January 2018

The $17 bln social network is splitting its chief operating officer role among other managers, after Anthony Noto took flight to run lender SoFi. With revenue falling and government scrutiny intensifying, moonlighting boss Jack Dorsey needs a solid executive, not a blank avatar.

Netflix cash-flow hole is becoming a moat

22 January 2018

Reed Hastings’ video-streaming service is losing cash, but piling on viewers. The $95 bln firm has more subscribers than established rivals like Hulu and Amazon. A hefty content budget is a risk for Netflix, but ensures only the most deep-pocketed media firms can challenge it.

Amazon HQ2 choices disappointingly undisruptive

18 January 2018

The e-commerce giant has cut the field for its second headquarters to 20 prime locations including Dallas, Atlanta and New York. Hundreds of cities hoped Amazon would think outside the box, but a desire for talent and a welcoming environment led it to the usual hot spots.

Tim Cook goes as American as Apple’s pie

17 January 2018

The iPhone maker will pay $38 bln in tax on its huge pile of overseas cash. It’s also pulling an Amazon with plans to open a new U.S. campus, invest $30 bln and create 20,000 jobs. The Apple boss has cleverly engineered some common ground with Donald Trump.

Disney’s future turns board geeks to possible rats

16 January 2018

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are leaving the entertainment giant’s board. Convergence with technology – in virtual reality, say – makes conflicts of interest likelier. That can dent directors’ effectiveness. Put less blandly, it can make them dangerous.

Lufax flotation offers a safer bet on China debt

16 January 2018

The peer-to-peer lender wants to raise as much as $5 billion from a Hong Kong IPO, says IFR. Lufax is better hedged than rivals, with the financial backing and risk acumen of insurance giant Ping An behind it. But this growing sector is volatile due to a shadow banking crackdown.

Chinese web giant Tencent gets U.S. tax bonus

15 January 2018

U.S. investors snapped up more than half of a $5 billion bond sale by Tencent. That's partly thanks to Republican tax cuts, which may result in fewer bonds from American tech stalwarts. That helps the gaming and social media outfit to lock in cheap overseas funding.

Facebook discovers cost of factory-farming users

12 January 2018

The $550 bln social network’s success harvesting ad dollars from mass-appeal content made it very profitable. The snag is that users are increasingly unhappy. Mark Zuckerberg’s return to focusing more on their welfare may limit short-run profits but should improve sustainability.

ICO represents last-gasp hope for struggling Kodak

9 January 2018

The iconic company went bankrupt by fumbling the shift to digital images. Now it’s betting its future on an initial coin offering to help photographers sell their work. The crypto buzz more than doubled its stock, but is unlikely to revive falling sales and profit.

Clothing retailers will struggle to resize

3 January 2018

E-commerce isn’t the only thing plaguing outfits like Macy’s. U.S. apparel inventories have risen sharply since the financial crisis while prices and sales have fallen. Ripping the pattern requires slimming down and cutting back on discounts, but deal-seeking consumers may balk.

TV content wars will have grisly season finale

2 January 2018

Netflix plans to hike its spending on programming by 33 pct this year. Add in Apple, Amazon and Hulu, and a fightback by traditional media, and budgets are rising faster than video-streaming revenue. It’s a golden age for viewers, and a nail-biter for the companies themselves.

Our 2018 predictions on Reuters TV

31 December 2017

From the CEOs who should run for U.S. president, to the banks that ought to be sizing up mergers, our writers give their take on the coming year in a series of Reuters video reports.

European soccer’s spending splurge will intensify

29 December 2017

Transfer fees like the $263 mln Paris St Germain paid Barcelona for Neymar have stoked talk of a bubble. But increased spending is mostly justified by the soaring value of broadcasting rights. If U.S. tech giants join the action in 2018, players will reap the benefits.

Alphabet’s Eric Schmidt sails off before the storm

21 December 2017

The executive chairman of Google’s parent is stepping down as the $740 bln search giant heads into a showdown with EU regulators led by Margrethe Vestager worried by its dominance. Hiring a strong, independent chairwoman would reflect well on founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Uber for everything will arrive in 2018

21 December 2017

The tech industry spent 2017 awash with cash and keen to disrupt the entire global economy. But loopy ideas, on everything from juice-making to how to treat co-workers, suggest a little hubris is creeping in. Breakingviews duly offers a few investment pitches for the year ahead.

Italy’s web tax is wrong solution to real problem

21 December 2017

Parliament is backing a 3 pct levy on web transactions to grab more from global U.S. tech titans. The digital economy requires new tax thinking. But an EU-wide approach would carry more force. And low projected revenue doesn’t justify the added burden on domestic internet firms.

China will plant a tech leadership flag with 5G

21 December 2017

The People's Republic will set many of the standards for ultra-fast mobile broadband. That will boost Huawei, ZTE, and others at the expense of foreign outfits like Nokia. This is a foretaste of the fights ahead for dominance of emerging technologies such as AI and electric cars.

India’s e-commerce war to surface on U.S. shores

20 December 2017

Amazon's arch-enemy Flipkart has good reason to snub Mumbai and head to New York for an IPO in 2018. Its biggest global peers are listed stateside. With SoftBank and Alibaba as backers, the $12 bln retailer is primed to take its local fight against Jeff Bezos to global investors.

Apple provides hedge against global tech backlash

19 December 2017

Authorities worldwide are stepping up action against technology giants over the way they erode privacy, use data to push rivals out of business and influence elections. As a security-minded purveyor of hardware, Apple stands apart. It’s likely to avoid the worst of the blowback.