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☆ Altice’s beaten-up debt is only a bet for the bold
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Pamela Barbaglia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Violeta Santos MouraLONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Altice’s debt is a bet for the bold. Patrick Drahi’s telecoms group is sitting on a $60 billion debt burden, and faces rising borrowing costs and a corruption investigation. Drahi will therefore need to sell assets to cut debt, which starts to come due in 2025. Both Altice France and Altice International are trying to sell their data centre businesses, which could raise some 700 million euros, bankers say. Yet Altice France alone has some $19 billion of debt coming due by 2029.

Persons: Patrick Drahi, Violeta Santos Moura, Patrick Drahi’s, Drahi –, Armando Pereira, Altice, Drahi, “, ”, Pereira, Xavier Niel’s, Manuel Magalhaes e Silva, Altice International’s, Alexandre Fonseca, Neil Unmack, Oliver Taslic Organizations: French, REUTERS, Violeta Santos Moura LONDON, Reuters, Altice USA, Altice, Bouygues Telecom, Banco Espírito Santo, Public, Thomson Locations: Paris, France, Moroccan, Europe, United States, Portugal, Israel, Dominican Republic, Orange, Altice France, Banco Espírito, Portuguese, New York, London

☆ Oddity will start trading after pricing IPO above range — here's what the beauty and tech company does
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | In Gabrielle-Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In the three months ended March 31, the company saw $165.7 million in revenue, up from $90.4 million in the year-ago period. It reported net income of $19.6 million, or 35 cents a share, compared with about $3 million, or 5 cents a share, a year earlier. In fiscal 2022, Oddity brought in $324.5 million in sales and saw net income of $21.7 million, or 39 cents a share. In the year prior, the retailer saw $222.6 million in revenue and net income of $13.9 million, or 26 cents a share. In 2020, it saw $110.6 million in sales and net income of $11.7 million, or 22 cents a share.

Persons: Oran Holtzman, Holtzman, Shiran Holtzman, Lindsay Drucker Mann, Goldman Sachs Organizations: Tech, Nasdaq, CNBC, Goldman, Israeli Defense Forces Locations: U.S

☆ AI hype embellishes Il Makiage IPO
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Anita Ramaswamy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, July 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Oddity Tech has a sparkly foundation for its upcoming initial public offering. The Israeli beauty company home to the Il Makiage and SpoiledChild brands is highlighting the artificial intelligence behind its makeup and machine learning algorithms that help consumers pick the right shades. These features should help put a dewy gloss on the valuation before the hype eventually fades. His company sells concealers and eye shadows directly to shoppers online and touts that its technology teams account for 40% of headcount. AI also powers Revela, a biotechnology firm it bought in April that develops new molecules for cosmetics and skincare.

Persons: Boss Oran Holtzman, Revela, It’s, Estee Lauder, Child, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Jeffrey Goldfarb, Sharon Lam Organizations: YORK, Reuters, Nasdaq, Coty, Tech, Allen, Co, Thomson Locations: Israeli, Cava

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Microsoft employees roast CEO Satya Nadella, men use AI for dating profiles, and top investors for fledgling startups
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Moving forward, I'll be a senior reporter on our flagship newsletter, Insider Today. Insider Today takes you inside the biggest stories in business, including tech. We're working on revamping Insider Today, and we want your feedback. Please fill out this quick, five-question survey to let us know what you want to see in the newsletter. Before we say "Bye Bye Bye" here — see you soon at Insider Today!

Persons: I'm, Siu, you've, you'll, Rebecca Zisser, we've, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Asia Martin, Arantza Pena Popo, Oran Cummins, Satya Nadella, William Bullock, Robert, Teodora Danilovic, Michael Parks, Diamond Naga Siu, Lisa Ryan, Alistair Barr, Hallam Bullock Organizations: Getty, Apple, Microsoft, OceanGate Expeditions Locations: Tech, Silicon, Midtown Manhattan, York City, San Diego, New York City, Silicon Valley, London

☆ How payments giant Mastercard is revamping is work culture to lure developers — from free days to work on passion projects to $200,000 salaries
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Paige Hagy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Mastercard is hiring tech talent across 7 global technology hubs. The payments firm wants software architects and talent in crypto and AI, among others. Mastercard wants to be a firm where technologists are excited to work. The qualifications and responsibilities listed on Mastercard tech job postings are intentionally vague so as to attract a diverse pool of talent with broad skill sets, Cummins said. They can also work remotely from anywhere for up to four weeks per year with the "Work from Elsewhere" benefit.

Persons: Oran Cummins, Cummins, It's Organizations: Mastercard, Mastercard Mastercard Mastercard, LinkedIn, York, Tech, New York, Flatiron District, Employees Locations: New York, Dublin, Sydney, Vancouver, Mastercard's, Flatiron

☆ Beauty and tech company Oddity, which runs Il Makiage, files to go public
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | In Gabrielle-Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Beauty and tech company Oddity, which runs the Il Makiage and Spoiled Child brands, filed to go public Friday as the once-frozen IPO market warms up. In the three months that ended March 31, the company saw $165.65 million in revenue, up from $90.41 million in the year-ago period. In fiscal 2022, Oddity brought in $324.52 million in sales and saw a net income of $21.73 million, or $5.94 a share. In 2020, it saw $110.64 million in sales and a net income of $11.71 million, or $3.45 a share. E.L.F., a multibrand beauty company, saw $144.94 million in sales in fiscal 2014 and a net loss of $2.88 million.

Persons: didn't, Oran Holtzman, Shiran Holtzman, Lindsay Drucker Mann, Goldman Sachs, Child's, Holtzman Organizations: Nasdaq, Goldman, CNBC, Israeli Defense Forces, Technologists Locations: Israel, U.S, Canada, Europe, Australia

☆ Subsidies from Big Tech should be last option for EU telcos - Meta Platforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 15 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O) said on Thursday subsidies from Big Tech should be the last option for European Union telecoms operators trying to get U.S. companies to foot some of their network cost. The European Commission launched a consultation early this year on whether tech giants should bear some of the costs of Europe's telecoms network. A majority of European Union countries have also rejected the push to levy a network fee on Big Tech, sources told Reuters earlier this month. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. It added any subsidies be awarded by a tender to ensure availability to all network operators, not just the large players.

Persons: Meta, Akash Sriram, Krishna Chandra Organizations: Big Tech, European Union, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, European Commission, Meta, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Orange, Bengaluru

☆ EU's Breton cites telcos' investment gap for Big Tech network fee push
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

It is better to be a telco in the U.S. than in Europe," Breton told a conference. Adjusted for GDP, 5G investment in the EU is lower than in other regions of the world," he said. He dismissed fears that requiring some users to pay more than others would breach EU net neutrality rules which say all users should be treated equally. "We will not touch net neutrality. It is not a question of changing net neutrality.

Persons: Thierry Breton, Breton, Foo Yun Chee, Richard Chang Organizations: Big Tech, EU, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Alphabet's, Google, Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Europe, United States, U.S, Breton, Orange

☆ Majority of EU countries against network fee levy on Big Tech, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, June 3 (Reuters) - A majority of EU countries have rejected a push by Europe's big telecoms operators to force Big Tech to help fund the rollout of 5G and broadband in the region, people familiar with the matter said. Telecoms ministers from 18 countries either rejected or criticised the proposed network fee levy on tech firms at a meeting with EU industry chief Thierry Breton in Luxembourg on Thursday, the sources said. That echoed comments made last month by EU telecoms regulators' group BEREC. Breton is expected to issue a report by the end of June with a summary of feedback provided by Big Tech, telecoms providers and others which will indicate his next steps. Any legislative proposal needs to be negotiated with EU countries and EU lawmakers before it can become law.

Persons: Thierry Breton, Breton, Foo Yun Chee, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: EU, Big Tech, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, France Telecom, French, Google, Apple Inc, Inc, Netflix Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Luxembourg, Orange, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania

☆ Internet data growth has not pushed up telcos' network costs, Dutch government says
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, June 1 (Reuters) - The Dutch government has stepped up its criticism of a push by EU telecoms operators to get Big Tech to help pay for the rollout of 5G and broadband, saying claims that unchecked data growth has pushed up network costs are not backed by facts. "In reality, contrary to all these persistent claims, the strong growth of Internet data in the past did not confront large telecom operators with higher network costs," the paper seen by Reuters said. "In reality the total network costs have remained constant despite the consistently high growth over the last decades, whilst the profit margins of European telecom operators have improved significantly over the last decade," the paper said. They said direct payments are unjustified as end-users already pay for their access line including network traffic costs while such intervention would affect the functioning of the internet. "The synergies for such cross-border mergers to telecom operators are generally considered relatively limited, whilst there don’t seem to be convincing benefits to wider society."

Persons: Foo Yun Chee, Chizu Organizations: EU, Big Tech, European Commission, Reuters, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Google, Apple Inc, Inc, Netflix Inc, Amazon.com Inc, Microsoft Corp, Netflix's, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Luxembourg, Orange, Dutch

☆ Telco tycoons’ UK bets look stuck underwater
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Pamela Barbaglia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Set those complications aside, however, and his stake-building may have cost about 4.2 billion pounds overall since 2021. That’s according to Breakingviews calculations which use the share price from the day before each stake increase became public. The holding is now worth 3.6 billion pounds, implying a nearly 560 million pound or 13% loss. That’s mild compared with some of Vodafone’s investors. But UK consolidation would hardly move the needle as Vodafone is haggling to retain control of the merged entity.

[1/2] An advertising board shows a 5G logo at the International Airport in Zaventem, Belgium May 4, 2020. The proposal is part of feedback to the European Commission which launched a consultation into the issue in February. The document, which was reviewed by Reuters and has not been published, was compiled by lobbying groups GSMA and ETNO. Telecom operators have lobbied for years for leading technology companies to contribute to funding 5G and broadband roll-out, saying that they use a huge part of the region's internet traffic. Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google, Apple (AAPL.O), Meta (META.O), Netflix , Amazon (AMZN.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) account for more than half of data internet traffic.

☆ Best rice dishes: 20 delicious specialties from around the world
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Terry Ward | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

And while famous rice dishes such as sushi, fried rice and paella are among the most prominent in the global spotlight, there are so many more rice recipes out there to put on your radar – and seek out on your travels. Wali wa kukaanga, KenyaWali wa kukaanga is Kenya’s answer to fried rice, and translates to just that in Swahili. So it’s no surprise that the Polynesian island country’s most popular rice dish, alaisa fa’apopo, has ties to the coconut, too. Thai fried rice (Khao Pad), ThailandThai fried rice uses the layering of flavors that's characteristic of the country's cuisine. ArenaCreative/Adobe StockWhen it comes to fried rice, the Chinese version tends to steal the spotlight.

☆ Il Makiage parent Oddity buys biotech startup Revela to design new molecules for beauty products
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Oddity is buying startup Revela for $76 million, its largest acquisition to date, and is putting another $25 million toward building Oddity Labs in Boston. The merger will bring to Oddity a team of scientists tasked with creating brand-new molecules, using artificial intelligence, that can be used in its cosmetics brands and future lines. AI-based molecule discovery is a common tool used in the pharmaceutical industry to create new drugs, but it isn't widely used in the beauty and wellness industry. Legacy brands have long relied on building products using proprietary formulations with a similar set of active ingredients, such as retinol, hyaluronic acid and peptides. "With this acquisition, we are using biologics to bring game-changing, science-backed beauty and wellness products to the market and to our users.

☆ Orange, Masmovil's Spanish tie-up faces EU antitrust probe
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, April 3 (Reuters) - European Union antitrust regulators on Monday warned that Orange (ORAN.PA) and MasMovil's 18.6-billion-euro ($20 billion) Spanish telecoms merger could reduce competition in Spain as they opened a full-scale investigation into the deal. Orange, the second largest telecoms provider in Spain, and fourth-ranked MasMovil announced the deal in July 2022, triggering expectations of more mergers in the sector. This could lead to higher prices and lower quality of telecom services for customers," the Commission said in a statement. "As result of the transaction, Orange and MasMovil would have the ability and incentive to restrict access of virtual operators to wholesale mobile network and wholesale fixed network access services," it said. Orange said it would take the time and the opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of the deal to the Commission.

☆ European stocks rebound as banking jitters ease
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Sruthi Shankar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

European banks (.SX7P) rose 0.9% after shedding 3.8% on Friday, when Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) sparked a rout in the sector. "Many investors still don't want to touch the banking sector for fears there is more distress to come," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell. "Yet for every bleak situation, there is always someone who sees an opportunity to make money, hence why we're seeing a rise in the share price of many European banks today." European stocks are looking to end the first quarter of the year with gains, buoyed by signs of economic resilience and hopes that central banks are near the end of their tightening cycles. However, European banks are set to end the quarter nearly flat amid the banking sector turmoil.

☆ Meta says a network fee is not the fix for European telecoms firms' financial problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Orange (ORAN.PA), Telefonica (TEF.MC), Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) and other operators have lobbied for two decades for U.S. tech giants to contribute to 5G and broadband roll-out. "We recognise the financial challenges that European telecom operators now face after decades of strong performance," Kevin Salvadori, Meta's vice president for network and Bruno Cendon Martin, its director and head of reality labs wireless, wrote in a blog post. "However, proposals by some European telecom operators to impose network fees on Content Application Providers (CAPs) such as Meta are not the solution," they said. It dismissed telecoms providers' arguments that the expansion of the metaverse, shared virtual worlds accessible via the internet, would strain infrastructure capacity. The development of the metaverse will not require telecom operators to grow capital expenditures for greater network investment," Salvadori and Martin said.

☆ These 74 stocks across 5 categories of AI are the top picks from the sector's leading fund managers.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

These 74 stocks are picked by AI ETF managers. What she believes is unique about her fund is its heavy focus on quantum computing technology, making up 41.22% of the fund. While big data is used for different technologies, it enables AI to work with massive data sets in its machine-learning process. TipRanks, a financial technology website that uses AI to analyze financial data, created a stock list for what they deem are the best AI stocks based on popularity. TipRanks' list of nine of the best AI stocks have large market caps and are likely to remain relevant for a long time.

☆ There’s hope beyond moaning for European telcos
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Pierre Briancon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The annual Barcelona tech fest this week was in line with tradition, but a different mood music could also be heard beyond the bleatings of European telco executives. The good news for them is that European competition authorities seem to have been mollified by the constant pleading, and could take a softer approach to consolidation in the industry. Höttges compared the 55 billion euros invested by European telcos on infrastructure last year to the 1 billion euros invested in connectivity by those he calls the “hyperscalers”. The hope is now that, considering the European telcos’ low return on investment, European competition authorities will review their strict stance on consolidation in the sector. But European telcos also have means to address some of the problems they are facing without giving the impression that everything depends on forces beyond their control.

☆ This startup found success using A.I. to build beauty products. But can it keep making money?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Oddity Il Makiage Coutesy: OddityOddity — the direct-to-consumer beauty and wellness platform known for its ubiquitous Il Makiage social media ads — is making money and growing in an environment that's increasingly risky for purely digital retailers. Since its U.S. launch in 2018, Oddity has achieved profitability, the company said, making $380 million in gross sales in 2022. In Spoiled Child's first year on the market, the new brand brought in $48 million in gross sales. Oddity builds out new products and brands by using its tech to figure out what customers are looking for. Oddity is in the process of integrating the tech into its Il Makiage powermatch quiz to improve accuracy.

☆ EU industry chief Breton says not favouring Big Telecoms over Big Tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, Feb 27 (Reuters) - EU industry chief Thierry Breton on Monday defended a consultation on whether Big Tech should foot the bill for billions of euros of investments in Europe's telecoms infrastructure, saying it was not about putting Big Telecoms' interests above tech companies. Still, Breton took a swipe at the big U.S. tech companies with their large-scale data centres, their cloud-based radio access network (RAN) - the radio element of a cellular system - and their closed ecosystems. "And interoperability or openness are not currently a strong feature of their business model." "I see these two issues as currently holding back our collective potential compared to other continents," Breton said. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Dutch warn against internet toll as EU looks to Big Tech to fund networks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Orange (ORAN.PA), Telefonica (TEF.MC), Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) and other operators have long lobbied for a Big Tech contribution and have found an ally in Breton, a former chief executive at Orange. These companies account for more than half of data internet traffic, according to telecom operators. Adriaansens said the Dutch government had commissioned a study by economic consultancy Oxera which showed the drawbacks of such a tax. "I think that there is this concern that our infrastructure is not able to meet our expectations and our ambitions. According to Oxera's study, Europe's telecoms providers have not been burdened with higher network costs despite the strong growth in internet data traffic.

BARCELONA, Feb 26 (Reuters) - A clash between Big Tech and European Union telecoms firms over who will underwrite network infrastructure is set to dominate discussion at the world's largest telecoms conference this week. More than 80,000 people, including tech executives, innovators, and regulators, are set to descend on this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. EU industry chief Thierry Breton on Thursday launched a 12-week consultation on its "fair share" proposals, under which Big Tech platforms would bear more of the costs of the systems which give them access to consumers. By contrast, Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Orange (ORAN.PA), Telefonica (TEF.MC) and Telecom Italia (TLIT.MI) have been actively lobbying for Big Tech to pay the fees. "This discussion around 'fair share', or what we sometimes call the 'investment gap', is going to be a threshold question," said John Giusti, GSMA's chief regulatory officer.

☆ EU eyes Big Tech as it seeks feedback on who should pay network costs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Big Tech in turn calls it an internet tax that will undermine EU network neutrality rules to treat all users equally. Tech and telecoms companies will be asked to respond to 60 questions. The Commission is likely to propose legislation after the consultation, which will need to be agreed with EU countries and EU lawmakers before it can become law. The questionnaire also asked whether the EU should create a continental or digital levy or fund. "Europeans already pay telecom operators for internet access, they should not have to pay telcos a second time through pricier streaming and cloud services," Christian Borggreen, CCIA Europe's senior vice president, said in a statement.

☆ EU antitrust regulators set March 20 deadline for Orange's MasMovil bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators will decide by March 20 whether to clear French telecoms provider Orange's (ORAN.PA) $19 billion bid for Spanish telecoms provider MasMovil, a European Commission filing showed on Tuesday. Orange sought EU approval the previous day. The EU competition watchdog can clear the deal with or without remedies after its preliminary review ends, or it can open a four-month investigation if it has serious concerns. The deal marks a tie-up between Spain's second and fourth largest telecoms operators, which could trigger more stringent scrutiny by the Commission. Reporting by Foo Yun Chee Editing by Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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