INVESTORS could easily get confused about the impact of oil-price rises on the economy and markets. The story seemed to be clear: high prices bad, low prices good. The two great oil shocks in the 1970s were unambiguously bad for Western economies—ushering in stagflation and transferring spending power to the oil-producing countries. In turn, low […]
Read moreAmazon announced Thursday that owners of the Amazon Echo Show, which begins shipping this month, will be able to use the device to tap into video cameras around the house. Echo Show owners who want to take advantage of this feature will also need a smart camera. To activate the camera, Echo Show owners only […]
Read moreUber needs a new CEO after its founder CEO, Travis Kalanick, was removed yesterday at the request of a number of Uber’s shareholders. They also need two new independent directors and a large number of open executive positions filled. The near daily turmoil facing the company has made some wonder why anyone would want to […]
Read moreJD.com, Alibaba‘s largest rival in the Chinese e-commerce market, has invested nearly $400 million into Farfetch, a fast-growing online marketplace for luxury fashion boutiques. Alongside the $397 million investment, JD.com founder and CEO Richard Liu is joining Farfetch’s board. Exact terms of the deal could not be learned, but a source said Farfetch’s new valuation […]
Read moreAdobe Systems‘ new Character Animator product, which uses artificial intelligence, will make the company’s stock soar, CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Thursday. Cramer spoke the morning after his interview with Adobe chief Shantanu Narayen on CNBC’s “Mad Money.” During the interview, Adobe transformed Cramer into a real-time animation using its program. “This is what the world […]
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WHEN John Chambers ran Cisco, the world’s biggest maker of networking gear, his hyperactivity nearly matched that of the high-speed switches and routers that made the firm’s fortune. He pushed Cisco into dozens of new businesses, from set-top boxes to virtual health care. He travelled the world preaching the virtues of connectivity. In interviews it […]
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ONE hundred years ago, Argentina was not the country it is today. Thanks to a belle époque of lavish foreign investment, rapid inward migration and bountiful agricultural exports, its GDP per person in 1917 was comparable to that of Germany and France. Although the first world war brutally interrupted international trade and investment, the country […]
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JEFF BEZOS does not like sitting still. In his annual letter to Amazon’s shareholders this year, he warned of “stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death.” Competitors are toiling to avoid the same fate but it is hard to keep up. On June 16th Amazon said it would pay $13.7bn […]
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THE headquarters of General Motors (GM) tower over the other skyscrapers in Detroit’s city centre, a reminder that the carmaker still rules the American market. Yet GM’s domestic might increasingly contrasts with its position elsewhere in the world. Although most other carmakers see becoming ever bigger everywhere as the answer to the industry’s multiple challenges, […]
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THE proposed sale of 5% of Saudi Aramco is not just likely to be the biggest initial public offering (IPO) of all time. “It’s like Gibraltar selling the rock,” as one expert on Saudi Arabia’s oil policy puts it. The world’s biggest oil company keeps the House of Saud in power, bankrolled 60% of the […]
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