Business, Financial & Legal - Page 86

Disney is thirsty for another massive acquisition, with CNBC reporting that the company is in discussions to buy 20th Century Fox, which is Fox's film and TV divisions. This purported deal would leave Fox to double down on its news and sports programs.

Fox would sell its entertainment divisions and make a tidy sum of money, as they're not interested in selling their Fox broadcast network that includes Fox Sports, and the Fox News and Fox Business brands. That doesn't matter however, as Disney is legally bound from buying the Fox network because it already owns ABC, leading into antitrust issues with ESPN.

Disney through an acquisition of Fox's film and TV divisions would secure the company massive international assets like Star and Sky, as well as FX and National Geographic. This deal could do some major things for Disney which has acquired some large players in the last few years making them one of the biggest entertainment companies in the world with Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Marvel.

Lenovo announced it will purchase a majority in Fujitsu's Client Computing branch in an effort to bolster its reduced PC market share.

Lenovo and the Development Bank of Japan have coordinated to acquire stake in Fujitsu's computing branch, with Lenovo purchasing a majority share at 51% and DBJ receiving 5% in the deal. Fujitsu will net about $245.45 million (28 billion yen) as part of the purchase contract, of which Lenovo will pay about $156.7 million in cash.

"The joint venture will focus on the research, development, design, manufacturing and sales of Client Computing Devices (CCD) for the global PC market," reads the press release announcement.

In the last 24 hours a story began surfacing that Kevin Spacey, the main actor in House of Cards by Netflix, attempted to sexually assault Star Trek Discovery actor when he was just 14 years old. The allegations forced Spacey to out himself as gay, and then claim that he honestly does not "remember the encounter".

Spacey tweeted out a massive reply, which you can see above, that he seems to really skim over. It seems he casually handles the sexual abuse of a 14-year-old, making this a very tragic event. Spacey said: "but if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years". Deplorable.

Netflix reacted by canceling House of Cards after its upcoming sixth, and now final season. Netflix and Media Rights Capital released a statement, where they said: "Media Rights Capital and Netflix are deeply troubled by last night's news concerning Kevin Spacey. In response to last night's revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported. As previously scheduled, Kevin Spacey is not working on set at this time".

Rick and Morty fans have been going crazy across the world to get their hands-on the is-it-real-or-not McDonald's Szechuan sauce promotion, but now one of these stories has gotten out of control.

The Drive is reporting that someone from Michigan put up a packet of their Szechuan sauce up for trade, with someone offering up their 2004 Volkswagen GTI in exchange for the Rick and Morty Szechuan sauce. The owner of the Volkswagen posted on Facebook after she traded her wheels for the sauce, saying "thank you for the insane trade on the VW Golf mk4 for the legendary Szechuan Sauce", continuing the post with "I hope you get lost in the sauce!". Hmmm, alrighty then.

I don't even know what to say, so I'm going to leave it to the comments to try and help me find my thoughts.

Yesterday we reported that Toshiba had sold its memory division for $18 billion to the Bain Capital consortium, Seagate have today confirmed their participation in the Bain Capital consortium to acquire Toshiba Memory Corporation. Seagate have committed $1.25 billion in funding to the group by March 2018, in return Seagate expect that this will enable a long-term NAND supply agreement with Toshiba Memory that will provide NAND flash chips for Seagate's expanding SSD portfolio.

"Over the course of many years, Seagate has developed an excellent long-term relationship with Toshiba Memory, and we have always been impressed with their consistent leadership in advancing NAND technology," said Steve Luczo, Seagate's chairman and chief executive officer. "We are pleased and honored to be part of the Bain Capital consortium and to help facilitate maintaining Toshiba Memory as a world leading independent NAND technology company. We know that Bain Capital is dedicated to the long-term success of Toshiba Memory and believe this acquisition is in the long-term best interests of our industry and of storage customers worldwide."

Luczo continued, "In the coming years, the storage industry will see significant data creation and increased storage needs, and we must be able to support those demands. Our NAND supply agreement with Toshiba Memory will enable Seagate to continue innovating and providing customers with storage solutions that fit their needs, be they HDDs, SSDs, or hybrid solutions."

With months and months of behind-closed-doors meetings and whispers, Toshiba has reportedly inked an $18 billion deal to sell of its chip business.

Western Digital was reportedly in the running for Toshiba's memory division, but a consortium led by Bain Capital LP took the lead and secured Toshiba's memory business. Something of note: SK Hynix is part of this consortium, which isn't in the best interests of WD.

Japanese companies will still maintain 50% of the business, keeping the local government with smiles on their dials, while Toshiba retains a 40.2% stake in Toshiba Memory Corp. Bain Capital LP will sail ahead with 49.9% of Toshiba Memory Corporation, while Japanese medical company, Hoya Corp, takes 9.9%.

French conglomerate Vivendi, who's vying for a take-over of hit games-maker Ubisoft, has once again abstained from voting in the video games publisher's annual shareholders meeting.

The results for Ubisoft's 2017 general shareholders meeting are in, and they show that Vivendi has once again opted not to show up for the proceedings. Vivendi is currently pushing to buy out Ubisoft by slowly accumulate share capital and voting rights, and currently sits on the largest pool of share capital owned by one stakeholder at 26.63%. The company also has a huge stockpile of voting rights, but has yet to implement them at a shareholders meeting due to bad blood (to say there's bad blood between Ubisoft and Vivendi is a massive understatement).

Vivendi's absence for Ubisoft's 2017 general shareholders meeting stamped a 29.99% "abstain" vote on every single resolution drawn up by the publisher, including Extraordinary Resolution 31 that would've granted all Ubisoft employees free company shares. The resolution was the only measure that failed to pass; combined with Vivendi's nearly 30% abstain vote, 9.98% of attending shareholders voted against the resolution. The Guillemots drafted the resolution in an attempt to fortify employee faith and goodwill in the company, and Ubisoft's leaders' calls on Vivendi to help the measures pass went unheeded.

Microsoft has formally changed the name of the Windows Store to the "Microsoft Store," which hints at bigger things.

The storefront's name change was made in the latest update for Windows Insiders who test out pre-release Windows 10 updates, who noticed the name and the shop's icon getting a new shape. Outlets like Windows Central are curious if Microsoft will start selling content other than the storefront's current digital fare--apps, games, music, videos, etc.

Others wonder if Microsoft will actually start selling non-digital content through the onboard storefront as well, considering the "Microsoft Store" matches up with the company's website storefront and traditional brick-and-mortar retailers. All in all the shop shouldn't change all that much, and Microsoft has yet to formally announce the change--or what it actually means.

Beleaguered Taiwanese smartphone-maker HTC has halted trading of its shares, lending credence to buyout rumors.

HTC today announced that it has paused all trading of company stock on the Taiwan Stock Exchange ahead of a "major announcement," which is likely an official takeover reveal. The company, which once sat alongside the biggest phone-makers in the industry, recently reported its eighth straight consecutive loss in May, with losses of $66 million in first quarter of the current fiscal year.

Speculation indicates HTC will sell its research and development and smartphone divisions to Alphabet Inc, and other reports say the company will likewise spin off its VR division that's responsible for the HTC Vive headset.

Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson has joined Intel's board of directors, and will continue his role leading EA while advising the hardware giant.

Tech titan Intel has elected EA's Chief Executive Officer Andrew Wilson onto its board of directors to help guide the company's future, the Santa Clara-based corporation today announced. "Andrew understands first-hand how technology and data create opportunity with his transformation of EA from offline packaged goods to a leader in online digital services," said Intel Chairman Andy Bryant in an official press release. "In addition to his experience leading and growing a global, technology-driven company, Andrew possesses a combination of creativity and business acumen that will further strengthen Intel's board."

With billions in yearly revenues, Electronic Arts is one of the biggest games companies in the industry, and sits at the forefront of the gaming world in regards to next-gen gaming technologies and monetization strategies. In fact, the games titan earned more from live services than it did from full game sales in its fiscal Q1'17 earnings. Live services, which include extra content/DLC/microtransactions from Ultimate Team and all subscription earnings, were up 22% year-over-year raking in $420 million or a whopping 61.67% of EA's first quarter digital net sales earnings.

The leading bid for Toshiba Memory Corp are now up to $22 billion, sources have told Reuters.

A consortium of buyers made up of chip-maker SK Hynix, investment firm Bain Capital, and numerous Japanese investors have raised their bid on Toshiba's storage chip business to 2.4 trillion yen, or $22.3 billion, sources familiar with the matter tell Reuters. Toshiba seeks to sell its storage business in an attempt to plug a massive earnings hole left by its failed Westinghouse nuclear business, which caused the company to lose $8.7 billion in its 2016 fiscal year.

U.S.-based Western Digital, who led a major bid for Toshiba's chip unit, has reportedly dropped out of the runnings. Sources say Toshiba is reviewing three consortium offers for the storage business, which included bids from a group led by Foxconn. Interestingly enough, tech giant Apple has backed all offers for Toshiba Memory Corp in an attempt to become closer to the source of storage memory to power its slate of iPhone devices.

Game of Thrones' latest season has just wrapped up, with one piracy monitoring company stating the S7 of Game of Thrones was pirated over one billion times.

Andy Chatterly, CEO and co-founder of Muso, recently spoke with Torrent Freak where he said: "It's no secret that HBO has been plagued by security breaches throughout the latest season, which has seen some episodes leak before broadcast and added to unlicensed activity".

He added: "In addition to the scale of piracy when it comes to popular shows, these numbers demonstrate that unlicensed streaming can be a far more significant type of piracy than torrent downloads".

As demand for flash memory soars, Japanese storage-maker Toshiba has announced that it will build a new semiconductor manufacturing facility in Iwate, northern Japan.

Beleaguered tech giant Toshiba is currently negotiating a sale of its Toshiba Memory Corporation chip business for up to $8.8 billion to plug vast losses of revenue, but that hasn't stopped the company from laying plans to open a new fabrication facility in Japan. This new plant, which is planned to go up in Iwate sometime next year, would be the memory-maker's second such facility, with the first located in Yokkaichi, central Japan.

The conglomerate may partner with Sandisk, the Western Digital-owned memory company, to help raise investment funds for the plant. With flash memory in major demand for consumer electronics, it will be interesting to see if this new facility helps alleviate the memory shortage that plagues key segments as well as Japanese-owned companies like Nintendo.

KFC is really making some big moves in China, first by launching their own smartphone, and then launching a VR training app, but now KFC China has introduced a new facial recognition payment system.

KFC China's new 'Smile to Pay' system lets customers pay for their orders by simply smiling into a kiosk, and second later the computer will identify you as it analyzes over 600 facial features in order to match them to the photo ID stored on the Alipay system. KFC China includes a "live-ness detection algorithm" which stops people from scamming the system if they were wearing wigs or heavy make up.

Jidong Chen, Ant's Director of Biometric Identification Technology explains: "Combined with a 3D camera and liveness detection algorithm, Smile to Pay can effectively block spoofing attempts using other people's photos or video recordings and ensure account safety".

Technology giant HP Inc has reported its fourth straight quarter of strong earnings growth driven by its Personal Systems segment.

HP's fiscal third quarter 2017 earnings mark the fourth consistent period the company has one-upped its total net revenues. The company earned $13.1 billion in net revenues in the three-month period ending July 31, 2017, up 10% year-over-year. HP's Personal Systems segment, which includes its lucrative commercial and consumer PCs as well as workstations, thin clients, and tablets, accounted for roughly 64% of fiscal Q3'17 net revenues, or $8.404 billion in net revenues and up 12% year-over-year. Commercial and Consumer segment net revenues increased by 11% and 14% respectively, and Notebook segment revenues were also up 12% with Desktop units down 3% year-over-year.

The tech titan's Printing segment earned $4.698 billion in net revenues in the period, up 6% year-over-year.

Apple is already a force in apps and music. However, they're still a nobody in the world of video. It seems that Apple wishes to change this and to change it pretty soon.

The rumors coming from Hollywood are saying that Apple is prepared to spend up to $1 billion of their own money to buy and create original video content.

Apple's move into the original content video space is mostly a reaction to Netflix's success with original content. Companies like Disney and others are already looking at creating their own streaming services, which will make it increasingly more difficult to fill a large library like Apple is used to having. One way of doing this is through creating original content that people want to watch, which can even be content that already exists and is very popular with viewers.

Netflix co-founder Mitch Lowe aims to provide a similar business model to theater moviegoers by dropping MoviePass subscription to just $10 a month.

Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are taking a big bite out of movie ticket sales as traditional moviegoers are simply staying home to consume content. This summer was one of the lowest periods in years with movie ticket sales down 12.4%, the Wall Street Journal reports. AMC reported dismal quarterly earnings due to the summer drought, triggering shares of the theater chain to slide dramatically. "The quarter was simply a bust," said AMC CEO Adam Aron during the company's quarterly earnings call.

MoviePass, a subscription service that allows subscribers to watch a film a day across the entire month, may be a solution to boost theater attendance. The service has recently lowered its price tag from $30 to just $10 a month in a bid to attract typical Netflix subscribers. MoviePass holders can watch a showing of a non-3D or IMAX film every day at any U.S. box office that accepts debit cards, and the company will actually pay the theater full price for the tickets. There's a trade-off, however: the company has essentially sold subscriber data to an analyst firm.

With its new Instant Pickup initiative, Amazon has made a big move on convenience stores, big box retailers, and traditional brick-and-mortar stores.

Amazon has rolled out its new Instant Pickup program, which allows customers to pick up select "daily essential" products ordered on Amazon.com. Instant Pickup locations will have orders ready within 2 minutes, Reuters reports, and targets quick impulse buys such as cold drinks, pre-packaged food, and other products like phone chargers. Company execs affirm Instant Pickup aims at bridging the gaps in Amazon's delivery service by offering convenient and fast pickup stations for items that don't translate well to delivery.

"I want to buy a can of coke because I'm thirsty," Amazon's director of student programs Ripley MacDonald told Reuters. "There's no chance I'm going to order that on Amazon.com and wait however long it's going to take for that to ship to me."

NVIDIA has just posted up its Q2 2018 fiscal year results, with the company continuing to pound out money from its success in the gaming market. Revenue reached a whopping $2.23 billion, up by a huge 56% year-over-year.

NVIDIA's net income was $583 million, up a massive 123% year-over-year, which is huge. NVIDIA's success is coming from their gaming market, which is their largest source of revenue. PC gaming is still big business, with NVIDIA's gaming division making $1.186 billion, compared to $781 million this time last year. This is what happens when you're the sole maker of high-end/enthusiast graphics cards.

It's not just the GeForce business that NVIDIA is benefiting from, but it's also the datacenter division - quickly becoming a money generator. This time last year, NVIDIA was making just 11% of their revenue from the datacenter, but fast forward to Q2 2018 (fiscal) and it has jumped by 175% to $416 million. It used to be small, but now the datacenter makes up 19% of NVIDIA's revenue... not bad at all.

Toshiba has reported a substantial $8.75 billion loss of income in the fiscal year ending March 2017, the company today announced.

Embroiled chip-maker Toshiba Corp has today revealed its fiscal year 2016 earnings following approval from auditors, illustrating how far the company's earnings have slid due to the Westinghouse closure. The earnings had previously been delayed three separate times. The timely filings have saved the company from being de-listed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The earnings filings show that Toshiba has suffered an $8.75 billion dollar net loss during the twelve-month period ending March 31, 2017. The Japanese electronics company pins the losses on the sizable debt incurred by its Westinghouse Electric nuclear power plant, which filed for bankruptcy in March. Overall the dissolved Westinghouse division incurred a total loss of 1.394 trillion yen, or $12.76 billion, during the fiscal year due to the discontinued operation of the branch.