Media & Advertising Musk incurs regulators’ wrath with late Twitter stake disclosure US regulators are investigating Elon Musk’s delayed disclosure of his stake in Twitter Inc last month, the Wall Street Journal yesterday, citing people familiar with the matter. Musk disclosed a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 4, a delay of at least 10 days since surpassing […] May 12, 2022
Business of Sport Abu Dhabi nets its first NBA games The Atlanta Hawks and 2021 NBA champions the Milwaukee Bucks will play preseason games at Etihad Arena on Yas Island in October May 10, 2022
Opinion Tech Will Dubai win the Web3 race? The co-founder of Tahseen Consulting, one of the MENA’s top tech policy firms, rates Dubai’s chances of becoming a hub for the decentralised web and crypto exchange May 10, 2022
Aviation Leasing giant AerCap says Boeing will ‘bounce back’ The head of the world’s largest aircraft leasing company threw his weight behind Boeing on Monday, saying the jetmaker would overcome a spate of industrial and certification problems. “I think Boeing will bounce back. There are a few scenes in this movie to be played out yet,” Aengus Kelly, AerCap’s chief executive, told the Airline […] May 9, 2022
Opinion Development The US must come to Lebanon’s aid The upcoming elections on May 15 present an opportunity for real change but this can only materialise with outside help May 9, 2022
Lifestyle Netflix drops Meghan Markle’s animated series Streaming platform Netflix Inc said on Sunday it had decided to stop work on Meghan Markle’s family series “Pearl” as it reviewed animated content. Dropping several projects, including Markle’s, was part of strategic decisions on production of animated series, the company said in a statement, without providing further details on its decision. Archewell Productions, the […] May 6, 2022
Banking & Finance Buffett says inflation an issue for Berkshire, it ‘swindles almost everybody’ Warren Buffett said on Saturday that inflation “swindles almost everybody” and that it was “extraordinary” how much inflation had been seen in Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s own businesses. Inflation has surged in the United States, hitting a new 40-year annualized high of 6.6% in March, and U.S. Federal Reserve policymakers appear set to deliver a series […] May 6, 2022
Cisco unveils technology to predict network issues Cisco Systems Inc on Wednesday unveiled a technology that it says can predict issues on enterprise networks before they happen to help prevent problems and increase reliability. The predictive software engine will gather data from various sources within a company’s network, learn the patterns and help engineers find hardware issues, bandwidth spikes and app configuration […] May 4, 2022
Tourism Airlines forecast higher fares after energy price spike Airlines will pass on rising oil prices to passengers through higher fares relatively quickly, but the spike in energy costs will worsen the industry’s overall outlook in 2022, according to the head of the International Air Transport Association. Speaking after JetBlue launched a counter-bid for US budget carrier Spirit Airlines, director general Willie Walsh also […] May 4, 2022
Microsoft partners with Epic Games to bring ‘Fortnite’ to Xbox Cloud Gaming Microsoft Corp is partnering with Epic Games to make “Fortnite” available with Xbox Cloud Gaming, Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said in a tweet on Thursday. The software behemoth has been looking to bolster its firepower in the booming videogaming market and earlier this year unveiled a $68.7 billion takeover of “Call of Duty” maker […] May 3, 2022
Analysis Energy Saudi Arabia leads OPEC move to drop energy watchdog’s data A decision driven by Saudi Arabia that OPEC+ should stop using oil data from the West’s energy watchdog reflected concern about US influence on the figures, said sources, adding to strain on ties between Riyadh and Washington. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group referred to as OPEC+, has […] May 3, 2022
Facebook-owner opens access to AI large language model Facebook-owner Meta Platforms Inc is opening up access to a large language model for artificial intelligence research, the social media company said on Tuesday. Meta said its model was the first 175-billion-parameter language model to be made available to the broader AI research community. “Large language models” are natural language processing systems which are trained […] May 3, 2022
Saudis ‘let down’ by US over Houthi security threats, says royal Saudi Arabia feels “let down” by the United States in tackling security threats to the kingdom and wider region by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement, a senior member of the Saudi royal family and former intelligence chief said. Traditionally strong ties between Riyadh and Washington have been shaken under U.S. President Joe Biden by the 2018 […] May 3, 2022
Manufacturing $3bn IPO of Coca-Cola’s African bottler delayed Coca-Cola’s estimated $3 billion initial public offering (IPO) for its African bottling unit will likely take place in the third quarter after market turmoil linked to the war in Ukraine upset plans to list earlier, three sources have said. The flotation of Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) would be the biggest on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange […] May 3, 2022
Food & Drink Upside Foods valued at $1bn from Abu Dhabi funding Upside Foods has raised $400 million in a funding round led by Temasek and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, valuing the cultivated meat company at over $1 billion, the company said on Thursday. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Synthesis Capital are among the investors who took part in the latest round, bringing the company’s total capital […] May 3, 2022
Shopify’s revenue growth slowest in seven years, shares plunge Canada’s Shopify Inc reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth since going public in 2015 and delivered a big miss on profit, sending the company’s U.S.-listed shares tumbling 17 percent on Thursday. Easing global e-commerce growth from the frenetic pace seen during the peak of the pandemic has hit Shopify, which provides merchants tools and service […] May 2, 2022
Google gives $100,000 worth of tech training to every US business Alphabet Inc’s Google will provide any US business over $100,000 worth ofonline courses in data analytics, design and other tech skills for their workers free of charge, the search company said on Monday. The offer marks a big expansion of Google’s Career Certificates, a program the company launched in 2018 to help people globally boost […] May 2, 2022
Analysis Energy Tapping oil stockpiles may not be enough to plug loss of Russian supply Top oil consuming nations may find that one of their main tools to fight high global oil prices – the release of strategic stockpiles – will prove inadequate to soothe markets starved of Russian supply since its invasion of Ukraine. The 31-member International Energy Agency, representing industrialised nations but not Russia, presided over the fourth […] May 2, 2022
Retail Apparel to buy Karl Lagerfeld brand in $210 mln all-cash deal Apparel Group Ltd said on Monday it has agreed to acquire the remaining 81% stake in Karl Lagerfeld for $210 million in cash, becoming the sole owner of the Parisian fashion brand. G-III, which owns brands including DKNY and Jessica Howard, will purchase the additional stake from a group of investors led by Fred Gehring […] May 2, 2022
Chip startups using light instead of wires gain momentum Computers using light instead of electricity for processing are gaining traction. And startups that have solved the engineering challenge of using photons in computer chips are getting big funding. Researchers say the technology could drive innovation in everything from quantum computing to driverless cars to artificial intelligence. California-based startup Ayar Labs is developing a technology […] May 1, 2022
Actual COVID death toll near 15 million The official death toll from the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic is about 5.4 million. But according to a new World Health Organization report, the actual number is around three times higher than that. The U.N. body said on Thursday there were 14.9 million excess deaths associated with COVID-19 by the end of […] April 29, 2022
Agriculture Ukraine war push egg prices higher worldwide Severe outbreaks of bird flu in the United States and France are tightening global egg supplies and raising prices for the food staple as the war in Ukraine disrupts shipments to Europe and the Middle East. Higher prices are particularly painful for consumers who rely on eggs as a low-cost source of protein and substitute […] April 29, 2022