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Apple on Thursday forecast a drop in iPhone sales and targeted overall revenue $6 billion below Wall Street expectations as its China business took a hit. This overshadowed overall fiscal first-quarter sales and profit that beat analysts' target s, powered by iPhone growth, sending Apple shares down 3% in after-hours trade. The results confirmed some analysts' concerns that the company's signature product is losing ground in the key Asian market where consumers are buying foldable phones and phones from Huawei, powered by a China-made chip. "China is the most competitive smartphone market in the world, and that hasn't changed," Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters in an interview. He said iPhone sales there were down "mid-single digits" in the December quarter, when accounting for currency exchange rates. "In China, Apple is facing more competitive challenges not only because of Huawei but also because of foldables, which is a very popular a...

Google will invest $1 billion on building a data centre just outside of London, the US technology giant said on Thursday, in its latest investment in Britain as it meets growing demand for internet services in the region. The data centre , located on a 33-acre (13-hectare) site bought by Google in 2020, will be located in the town of Waltham Cross, about 15 miles north of central London, the Alphabet-owned company said in a statement. The British government, which is pushing for investment by businesses to help fund new infrastructure, particularly in growth industries like technology and artificial intelligence, described Google's investment as a "huge vote of confidence" in the UK. "Google's $1 billion investment is testament to the fact that the UK is a centre of excellence in technology and has huge potential for growth," Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in the Google statement. The investment follows Google's $1 billion purchase of a central...

Hewlett Packard Enterprise will buy networking gear maker Juniper Networks for $14 billion in an all-cash deal, in an attempt to spruce up the company's artificial intelligence (AI) offerings. HPE offered $40 per share to Juniper shareholders, the companies said on Tuesday. That represents a 32.4% premium to the stock's close on Monday, when the news of the deal first emerged. The acquisition comes at a time when the AI gold rush has led companies to pour billions of dollars into upgrading and developing new wares and is expected to double HPE's networking business. HPE, grappling with sluggish demand in its traditional server Business , is looking to tap into Juniper's offerings such as network security and AI-enabled enterprise networking operations (AIOps). Weak demand from i NFL ation-hit wireless carriers and cable operators, as well as stiff com Pet ition from Cisco Systems and Nvidia in the networking space has been a drag on Juniper. Sh...

Xbox maker Microsoft closed its $69 billion deal for Activision Blizzard on Friday, swelling its heft in the video-gaming market with best-selling titles including "Call of Duty" to better compete with industry leader Sony. Originally unveiled in January 2022, the biggest deal in the gaming industry cleared its final big hurdle - an approval from Britain - earlier in the day after Microsoft agreed to sell streaming rights for Activision's games to allay competition concerns. The completion is a major win for the US tech firm in its push to attract more people to its Xbox consoles and Game Pass subscription service. Microsoft's gaming revenue trails that of Sony, whose PlayStation consoles outsell the Xbox. "Today is a good day to play," Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said in a post on the X social media platform, formerly known as Twitter. He will oversee the Activision business, with the video-game publisher's CEO Bobby Kotick stayi...

LONDON: Candy Crush Saga, the matching game played by millions on their commute, has reached $20 billion in revenue since its 2012 launch, maker King said, adding that it would soon release levels up to 15,000 for the most dedicated players. First appearing on a website, it shifted to Facebook and then mobile, where it took off and has now been downloaded 5 billion times. It pioneered the "freemium" model, in which the Game is free but players can spend money to boost their performance or can watch ads to gain moves. King President Tjodolf Sommestad said Candy Crush Saga and its other titles like Farm Heroes Saga showed that mobile Game s could have enduring appeal. "We've proven to ourselves and to the industry that it is possible to reignite games that are years old and keep them relevant for a decade or longer, and break records even a decade in," Sommestad said in an interview. Todd Green, Candy Crush general manager, said the game was constantly u...

ISTANBUL: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan it plans to invest $2 billion in Turkey. Michael Evans, president of Alibaba, made the comments in a meeting with Erdogan, according to a statement from the company's Turkish unit. It did not specify when the invest ment would be made. Evans also said Alibaba has invest ed $1.4 billion in Turkey through its unit Trendyol, one of Turkey's best known e-commerce platforms, the statement said. Erdogan is in the United States to attend the 78th session of the U.N. General Assembly. Trendyol, whose president Caglayan Cetin also met with Erdogan, said Evans shared details about new invest ments such as a data centre and a logistics centre in Ankara and an export operation centre at Istanbul Airport. Source: https://thefoxposts.com/alibaba-tells-erdogan-it-plans-to-invest-2-billion-in-turkey-TheFOXposts-35890.html?utm_source=blogger_source&utm_medium=blogger_medium...

BERLIN: Mercedes will invest billions of dollars to modernise its plants in China, Germany and Hungary over the coming years, magazine Automobilwoche reported, as the carmaker prepares to switch to electric vehicles and cut emissions. The European Union has set a goal to halve CO2 emissions per passenger car over their life cycle by the end of this decade compared to 2020 and is seeking agreement on a 2035 deadline to end the sale of fossil fuel cars. Mercedes has said it will be ready to go electric by the end of the this decade, where market conditions allow. "We are invest ing a three-digit million amount per plant for the run up," production manager Joerg Burzer was quoted as saying by the magazine, adding that these invest ments will be at the plants in Beijing, Rastatt in Germany and Kecskemet in Hungary. The carmaker will start work on the Rastatt plant over the coming months and will produce the first model of the compact vehicle platform MMA ...

Elon Musk's SpaceX is raising $750 million in a new round of funding that values the rocket and satellite company at $137 billion from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, CNBC reported late Monday. Reuters had reported in November that SpaceX was in talks about an offering of mostly secondary shares that could value the company at up to $150 billion, representing a 20% increase in valuation. SpaceX, which counts Alphabet Inc and Fidelity Investments among its investors, had raised about $1.68 billion through equity financing in June. Spokespersons for SpaceX and Horowitz did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Horowitz was also a co-investor in Musk's Twitter buyout deal worth $44 billion. SpaceX has launched numerous cargo payloads and astronauts to the International Space Station for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Starlink, SpaceX's growing network of thousands of interne...