Amazon presents a mixed bag to investors after record holiday sales January 31, 2019 E-commerce behemoth Amazon predicted lower-than-expected revenue for the current quarter tonight, despite reporting record sales for its busiest period of the year. Revenue for the three months to 31 December rose 19.7 per cent year-on-year to hit $72.4bn (£55.1bn), boosted by events such as Black Friday and Christmas and topping consensus estimates of $71.9bn as polled [...]
Intel names Bob Swan as new boss in the wake of former CEO’s rule-breaking January 31, 2019 Intel has made its interim chief executive Robert 'Bob' Swan its permanent boss, after the role's former occupant resigned last year. Swan, who was previously Intel's chief financial officer, had also served as Ebay's finance boss for the nine years before joining Intel in 2016. His appointment marks a change for Intel, which has traditionally [...]
Switch sales help Nintendo beat profit expectations January 31, 2019 Nintendo has recorded a 26 per cent jump in operating profit in its third quarter today, driven by strong sales of its Switch console. The figures The video game giant reported an operating profit of ¥158.6bn (£1.11bn) in the three months to the end of December, up 26 per cent on the same period a year ago and [...]
Google’s GDPR fine may cost it more than just €50m – it will impact the tech industry too January 31, 2019 Back in December, I wrote an article asking why, six months after the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) had come into force, we had not yet seen any major fines or punishments for firms that had misused or mishandled personal data. The lack of sanctions, I argued, made the new regulatory powers toothless. [...]
Of course AI can be biased – and it’s up to businesses to fix that January 31, 2019 When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the recently elected US representative, suggested last week that algorithms could be racist, she received a lot of attention. Naysayers derided her for suggesting that inanimate objects can display prejudice, but a number of experts actually supported her. The central premise of the debate is this: machines cannot be biased, but the humans [...]
Facebook shares soar as it beats estimates on revenue and user numbers January 30, 2019 Shares in Facebook jumped more than eight per cent in after-hours trading tonight, boosted by a welcome set of positive fourth quarter results for the beleaguered social media firm. Revenue at Facebook rose to $16.9bn (£12.9bn) in the three months to 31 December, up 30 per cent compared to the same period last year and [...]
Tesla tops revenue forecasts but profits take a hit January 30, 2019 Electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has posted a smaller profit tonight than in its previous quarter, as fresh legislation and ramped up production costs took a bite out of its success. The firm made a net profit of $139.5m (£106.4m) in the three months ending 31 December, compared with a $311.5m profit in the previous quarter when it still [...]
Alibaba revenue growth slows to weakest pace in three years January 30, 2019 Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's revenue grew at its slowest pace in three years last quarter, as the ongoing US-China trade spat and a general slowdown in the region weighed heavily on its busiest period. Asia's second most valuable public company published revenue of 117.28bn yuan (£13.4bn) for the three months to 31 December, compared to 83bn yuan a [...]
Facebook removes controversial app that pays teenagers for their iPhone data January 30, 2019 Facebook has taken down a research app that paid volunteers aged as young as 13 to gain unfettered access to data on their mobile phone. An investigation by Tech Crunch lifted the lid on the Facebook Research App, which bypassed the Apple App Store to seek out users via unofficial beta testing networks. The app [...]
Amazon’s UK boss Doug Gurr appointed a trustee at the National Gallery January 30, 2019 Prime Minister Theresa May has made the UK country manager of Amazon a trustee of the National Gallery. Doug Gurr, who was also formerly president of Amazon in China, first joined the e-commerce site in 2011. A statement from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport said Gurr had previously worked for the UK government, and [...]