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☆ Huawei separates Russia business from other CIS countries -source
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MOSCOW, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Chinese telecoms giant Huawei [RIC:RIC:HWT.UL] is separating its corporate division in Russia and Belarus from other CIS countries, a source close to the company told Reuters on Tuesday. The other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, made up of former Soviet republics, will now fall under the supervision of Huawei's office in Bahrain. Work to make the change has started and the new arrangement will officially become operational at the start of 2023, the source told Reuters. Vedomosti in September reported that Huawei had moved some employees in Russia to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee and Alexander Marrow Editing by Tomasz JanowskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Apple's Pro iPhones will be harder to find in stores this holiday -Best Buy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 22 (Reuters) - Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) high-end iPhones will be in short supply at stores this holiday season, Best Buy Co Inc's (BBY.N) chief executive said on Tuesday, as the tech giant grapples with production issues at a virus-blighted plant in China. read moreThe supply issues are expected to most significantly impact Apple's premium iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models, which start at nearly $1,000. Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said the electronics retail giant was seeing a shortage in stocks of the premium iPhones and had factored the expected loss in sales into its holiday quarter forecast. Apple's iPhones and other products draw a lot of customers to Best Buy stores and often trigger impulse buying of other gadgets as well. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives estimates 8 million iPhone 14 units will be sold over the Black Friday weekend, about 2 million fewer than a year ago.

☆ Buses set on fire in South Africa's Cape Town as taxi strike starts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CAPE TOWN, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Two buses were set on fire on Monday in South Africa's Cape Town as local taxi associations embarked on a two-day strike to protest against a termination of an incentive program. The Western Cape provincial government, home to legislative capital Cape Town, recently announced it would terminate an incentive scheme for taxi drivers which encouraged safe driving practises and curtailed illegal operations. But due to a lack of funding it had to cancel the programme after a little more than a year, triggering an uproar from the taxi associations who called for a two-day strike in the city from Monday. [1/6] People walk past a torched bus during a two-day strike by taxi operators over a number of grievances against traffic authorities in Cape Town, South Africa, November 21, 2022. "No passengers or drivers were injured," Bronwen Dyke-Beyer, a spokesperson of Golden Arrow Bus Services, which runs a fleet of 1,100 buses in Cape Town, told Reuters, confirming that a one of its buses was set alight.

Three quarters of cars produced by South Africa's auto industry, which accounts for 5% of gross domestic product and over 100,000 jobs, are exported, mostly to European countries. Martina Biene, Volkswagen South Africa's new managing director, told Reuters the company's manufacturing facilities in the country do not plan an immediate pivot to producing electric vehicles. "I think by 2035 there will be production of electric vehicles in Africa ... but in the meantime we will export probably less to Europe than other countries." Volkswagen South Africa produced over 129,000 vehicles last year along with more than 58,000 engines, mostly destined for exports. That would focus on selling South African-manufactured petrol and diesel vehicles in most markets and imported EVs in countries like Mauritius, Cape Verde and South Africa as demand for more environmentally friendly cars picks up there.

☆ Russia's Tele2 files lawsuit against Ericsson over Russia withdrawal
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 11 (Reuters) - Russian telecoms firm Tele2 has started legal proceedings in Moscow against Ericsson (ERICb.ST) over what it says is the Swedish firm's refusal to honour agreements to supply equipment, Tele2 representatives told Reuters on Friday. A spokesperson for Ericsson said: "We are aware of a lawsuit reported in Russian news media, but cannot comment further at this time." In a statement to Reuters on Friday, Tele2 said: "We have initiated proceedings against Ericsson Corporation and Satel TVK due to the refusal of the companies to fulfil their obligations to provide equipment. Satel TVK is a Russian company that supplied Tele2 with Ericsson equipment. Tele2 said it had engaged in eight months of negotiations with Ericsson to attempt to find a solution, but had not received "constructive proposals" from the company.

☆ South African pay TV group Multichoice posts loss in first half
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 10 (Reuters) - South African pay TV company Multichoice Group (MCGJ.J) said on Thursday it made a loss in the first half due to an upfront investment in services and offerings it made before the soccer World Cup that starts later in November. The company has exclusive rights to broadcast the sporting extravaganza in Africa. For the half year ended Sept. 30, its headline loss per share, the main measure of earnings in South Africa, was at 58 South African cents, down from 356 cents posted in the same period of last year. Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

The groups said on Friday they are escalating their pressure and demanding brands pull their Twitter ads globally. Staff who worked in engineering, communications, product, content curation and machine learning ethics were among those impacted by the layoffs, according to tweets from Twitter staff. Shannon Raj Singh, an attorney who was Twitter's acting head of human rights, tweeted on Friday that the entire human rights team at the company had been cut. Musk tweeted that his team had made no changes to content moderation and done "everything we could" to appease the groups. Employees of Twitter Blue, the premium subscription service that Musk is bolstering, were also let go.

PARIS/STOCKHOLM, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Telecom operators are pushing the European Union to implement new laws that would make Big Tech pay for network costs, following Australia's example, according to four sources close to the matter. "GSMA is coordinating a proposal that speaks to Big Tech contribution to European infrastructure investment," said John Giusti, GSMA's chief regulatory officer, without elaborating on the content of the proposal. Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Australia's recently-adopted laws in its own spat with Google and Facebook have emerged as the most-favoured weapon for telecoms operators in their dispute with Big Tech companies, the sources said. The rules, first aimed at compelling tech giants to pay for news content online, allow an Australian government-appointed arbitrator to set fees if Big Tech companies and news publishers fail to find a common ground over copyright.

The company's content moderation team is expected to be a target of the cuts, tweets from Twitter employees suggested on Friday. Twitter employees vented their frustrations about the layoffs on the social network, using the hashtag #OneTeam. User Rachel Bonn tweeted: "Last Thursday in the SF (San Francisco) office, really the last day Twitter was Twitter. The company's office in Piccadilly Circus, London, appeared deserted on Friday, with no employees in sight. Employees told Reuters they were left to piece together information through media reports, private messaging groups and anonymous forums.

☆ Jury begins deliberating in Trump ally Barrack's 'foreign agent' trial
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

He argues that even when his interests aligned with the UAE's, he was acting on his own accord and not subject to Abu Dhabi's direction. Barrack's lawyers did not dispute that he had been in touch with Emirati officials and occasionally sought their feedback, but they said any impact on U.S. policy or public opinion was insignificant. Sam Nitze, a prosecutor, countered in a rebuttal that Emirati officials were "thrilled" at Barrack's comments about the country and its leaders during television interviews. He said the law was designed to make sure the U.S. government knew when someone was acting as a "mouthpiece" for a foreign government. Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York, Editing by William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Indians revel in Rishi Sunak’s rise to the U.K.’s top job
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Mithil Aggarwal | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Narendra Modi, the prime minister of majority Hindu India, quickly congratulated Sunak. “Special Diwali wishes to the ‘living bridge’ of UK Indians, as we transform our historic ties into a modern partnership,” he tweeted. “The reaction is of admiration, aspiration that they could get to a similar position and happiness that one of their own has got the position,” Dogra said of the worldwide reaction among Hindus. Pedestrians walk past paintings of Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Mumbai on Tuesday. Sunak visited different temples in London and was seen participating in a cow ritual during his losing campaign for prime minister against Liz Truss in August.

BENGALURU/STOCKHOLM, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Messaging app WhatsApp was starting to come back online at 0900 GMT and the company said the issue has been fixed after users across the world reported problems earlier on Tuesday. At around 0750 GMT, outage reporting site Downdetector had shown over 68,000 users had reported problems with the app in the United Kingdom. We have fixed the issue and apologise for any inconvenience," a spokesperson for WhatsApp parent company Meta Platforms (META.O) said. The company had not sent any fresh updates as users in Asia, India and the United Kingdom started seeing some connections come back online. In the past, rival apps like Telegram, Snap or even Meta's Instagram have seen temporary spikes in users when WhatsApp has been down.

The company's cloud business has been growing at a rapid clip, rising 38% in the third quarter to 3.29 billion euros ($3.25 billion). Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterAt that time it envisaged total adjusted revenue of 36 billion euros in 2025, with 22 billion euros of that coming from the cloud business. Total revenue grew 5% in currency-adjusted terms to 7.84 billion euros, SAP said, beating analyst expectations of 7.62 billion euros. SAP stuck with its full-year operating profit forecast of between 7.6 billion and 7.9 billion euros. That forecast was made in July, when it cut its guidance from between 7.8 billion and 8.25 billion euros, citing charges related to the war in Ukraine.

☆ WhatsApp down: users report issues around the world
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Nivedita Bhattacharjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A woman uses her phone next to a logo of the WhatsApp application during Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai, India September 20, 2022. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File PhotoBENGALURU, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Popular messaging app WhatsApp stopped working for many people across the world on Tuesday, with users in Asia, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Europe reporting issues sending and receiving texts and videos. At around 0750 GMT, outage reporting site Downdetector showed over 68,000 users had reported problems with the app in the United Kingdom. When Whatsapp had an hours-long outage last October, it hit trading of assets from cryptocurrencies to oil, before traders switched to alternative platforms such as Telegram. "Don't recheck your internet connection... WhatsApp is down right now," a user tweeted.

"SAP is fully committed to winding down our business in Russia as quickly as possible," a SAP spokesperson said. Russia's parliament has been discussing draft legislation that would allow Moscow to seize Western companies' assets and possibly prosecute executives involved in implementing sanctions against Russia. While Gazprom and Sberbank were hit by Western sanctions, Nornickel was not. The SAP case sheds light on the complications Western companies face leaving Russia. While some departing companies have fired local staff, SAP gave them the option to relocate from Russia.

☆ Walmart doubles down on Africa despite a decade of frustration
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Nqobile Dludla | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

A shopper pushes a trolley as she leaves a Builders Warehouse store owned by Walmart-led Massmart Holdings in South Africa, at Gleneagles, in the south of Johannesburg, South Africa, October 20, 2022. Instead, Massmart's units outside South Africa struggled with foreign exchange risk, tricky regulatory environments and macroeconomic volatility. Earlier this year, an internal Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) memo detailing its expansion plans, including a maiden foray onto the continent via South Africa, leaked to media. The pending battle with its global rival looms over Walmart's e-commerce strategy for Massmart, several shareholders told Reuters. While Walmart can now firmly set the direction at its South African unit, its track record outside the United States is spotty.

☆ Telia cuts outlook as soaring energy costs eat into profit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Supantha Mukherjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Electricity prices have hit record levels in Europe after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a fall in nuclear power production in several countries. Telia, which operates in the Nordic and Baltic countries, has hedged expects electricity costs to go up by 600 million crowns from 2.2 billion in 2022. Despite higher energy costs, quarterly core earnings were broadly in line with market expectations as Telia's business grew in all its markets for the first time in a decade. Third-quarter adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) rose to 8.07 billion Swedish crowns from 7.74 billion a year ago, while analysts had expected 8.13 billion crowns, according to a company-provided poll. In the latest quarter, the company saved 100 million crowns in costs.

While the revenue of both companies beat expectations thanks to the rollout of 5G, delayed royalty payments meant their core profit missed analysts' expectations. Shares in Ericsson slumped 12% and were the worst performers in the STOXX 600 (.STOXX) while Nokia shares fell almost 5% to be among the worst. Companies such as Ericsson charge $2.50 to $5 for every 5G handset they sell and come under pressure when negotiating new contracts. Ericsson's quarterly royalty revenue fell 1.1 billion Swedish crowns ($98.24 million) as it battled companies such as Apple (AAPL.O) over patents. Nokia's patent revenue was down by 62 million euros ($60.67 million), mainly due to a dispute with Oppo and Vivo.

☆ Nokia quarterly operating profit lags expectation
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Ericsson's quarterly earnings miss estimates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

STOCKHOLM, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Sweden's Ericsson (ERICb.ST) on Thursday reported third-quarter core earnings that missed expectations for the second quarter in a row, as margins took a hit from higher component and logistics costs. The company's quarterly adjusted operating earnings fell to 7.1 billion Swedish crowns ($633.05 million) from 8.8 billion crowns a year earlier, missing analysts' mean forecast of 8.73 billion, according to Refinitiv data. ($1 = 11.2155 Swedish crowns)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; editing by Niklas PollardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ericsson earnings miss estimates as costs dent margins
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

STOCKHOLM, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson (ERICb.ST) on Thursday reported third-quarter core earnings that missed expectations for the second quarter in a row, as margins took a hit from higher component and logistics costs. The company's quarterly adjusted operating earnings fell to 7.1 billion Swedish crowns ($633.05 million) from 8.8 billion crowns a year earlier, missing analysts' mean forecast of 8.73 billion, according to Refinitiv data. Ericsson's quarterly revenue, however, rose to 68 billion crowns from 56.3 billion a year earlier, beating analysts' average estimate of 66.25 billion. Footprint gains with large-scale projects in early stages tend to have a dilutive impact on gross margins, Chief Executive Borje Ekholm said in a statement. ($1 = 11.2155 Swedish crowns)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm; editing by Niklas PollardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Nokia quarterly operating profit lags expectation as margin drops
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

STOCKHOLM, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Nokia (NOKIA.HE) on Thursday reported quarterly operating profit below market expectations even as the Finnish telecom equipment maker continues to benefit from strong demand from phone companies as they roll out 5G. Third-quarter comparable operating profit rose to 658 million euros ($643.3 million) from 633 million last year, lagging the 690.6 million euro mean forecast of 10 analysts polled by Refinitiv. Net sales grew 6% in constant currency in the quarter compared to the same period a year ago to 6.24 billion euros, beating estimates of 6.06 billion. But the comparable operating margin fell year-on-year to 10.5% from 11.7% as improving profitability in Mobile Networks and Network Infrastructure was offset by timing effects of contract renewals in Nokia Technologies, the company said. ($1 = 1.0229 euros)Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Stockholm and Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen, editing by Terje SolsvikOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ South Africa's Telkom says bigger rival MTN has terminated buyout talks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Makiko Yamazaki | David Carnevali | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 19 (Reuters) - South African mobile operator Telkom (TKGJ.J) said on Wednesday bigger rival MTN Group (MTNJ.J) had terminated talks to buy the former in what would have created the country's biggest telecoms company. Telkom said it could not offer MTN assurances to enter into exclusive talks sought by the country's second biggest telecoms service provider. It withdrew the offer later only to come back last month with a revised offer asking Telkom to buy it out. "MTN terminated discussions... as Telkom was not in a position to provide MTN with assurances around exclusivity," Telkom said in a statement. The talks between Telkom and MTN were at an early stage and had not progressed to due diligence, Telkom said, adding that it had not received any binding offer from MTN.

☆ OutThink raises $10 mln to track human errors behind data breaches
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Juliette Portala | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies AlbionVC backs OutThink's $10 million seed funding roundFinancing to speed up the firm's international distributionCo to help identify human behaviour behind data breachesOct 18 (Reuters) - London-based cybersecurity company OutThink has raised $10 million in early-stage investments backed by venture capital firm AlbionVC, it said on Tuesday, as it looks to help organisations identify human behaviour that can lead to data breaches. The company, which says human behaviour is the source of 91% of data breaches, uses machine learning, natural language processing and applied psychology to identify, understand and manage the attitudes, intentions and sentiment of individuals. The financing, in which TriplePoint Capital, Forward Partners, Gapminder and Innovate UK took part, brings the firm's total funding to $11.4 million. OutThink said its platform was used by major organisations, including Whirlpool (WHR.N), Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO), Rothschild (ROTH.PA) and NatWest (NWG.L). Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Juliette Portala, editing by Supantha Mukherjee and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Investment in cloud firms plunged 42% in Q3, says venture capitalist Accel
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Supantha Mukherjee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

While 51 cloud software developers raised funds at valuations of over $1 billion in the first quarter of 2022, only three did so in the third quarter, Accel's 2022 Euroscape report showed. The valuation of publicly listed cloud companies has also dropped to $1.2 trillion from $2.8 trillion in the last 12 months, Accel said. Rising interest rates and climbing inflation has led to contracted software valuations," said Philippe Botteri, a partner at Accel. "But we firmly believe that strong secular trends, like the shift to cloud, will continue to propel European and Israeli SaaS forward." There is around $770 billion available to buy cloud companies, with $440 billion of cash on the balance sheets of strategic investors and $330 billion of dry powder from technology-focused private equity funds, Accel estimated.

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