July, 2017

• 4 July

  Samsung plans $18bn of new investments in chip production

  

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s biggest maker of memory chips, announced 20.4 trillion won ($18 billion) of new investments to expand semiconductor output in South Korea. After spending 15.6 trillion won on its Pyeongtaek plant south of Seoul, total investment in the facility will rise to 30 trillion won by 2021, it said in an statement on Tuesday. The ...

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• 4 July

  Court freezes LeEco assets over late debt payments

  

  Bloomberg LeEco is trying to resolve a dispute with one of China’s largest banks over unpaid interest on debt, a spat that’s prompted a Shanghai court to freeze 1.24 billion yuan ($182 million) of assets held by the tech conglomerate and its billionaire founder Jia Yueting. The ailing firm’s disagreement with China Merchants Bank Co. arose over loans to a ...

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• 4 July

  China steps up scrutiny of online mobile games

  

  Bloomberg China is stepping up its scrutiny of online and mobile games, as the leading government-owned newspaper blasted Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s top-grossing Honour of Kings for harming children in the pursuit of profit. The People’s Daily criticized Tencent’s most profitable smartphone title in an editorial, citing it as an example of how addictive games spread “negative energy” and have even ...

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• 4 July

  China contractor drops IPO as director under police surveillance

  Bloomberg Chinese construction contractor New Headline Holdings Ltd. shelved a HK$340 million ($44 million) initial public offering in Hong Kong after a key executive, who is also the chairman’s wife, was put under police surveillance. Executive Director Xie Birui is under “designated residence surveillance” by the Public Security Bureau of Lianyungang, the city in eastern China’s Jiangsu province where the ...

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• 4 July

  Google’s DeepMind trial with patient data violated UK law

  

  Bloomberg A landmark medical trial involving Alphabet Inc.’s DeepMind artificial intelligence division violated British data protection laws, the UK’s top privacy watchdog ruled. The Information Commissioner’s Office said that the National Health Service hospital that conducted the trial with DeepMind improperly shared 1.6 million patient records with the tech company, failing to inform patients that their data would be used ...

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• 4 July

  Microsoft Corp sales shuffle may lead to thousands of job cuts

  

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. reorganized its sales and marketing operations in a bid to woo more customers in areas like artificial intelligence and the cloud by providing sales staff with greater technical and industry-specific expertise. The changes will mean thousands of job cuts in areas such as field sales, said a person familiar with the restructuring who asked not to be ...

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• 4 July

  UK manufacturing slowdown raises doubts about outlook

  

  Bloomberg UK manufacturing slowed more than forecast in June as uncertainty hit demand, raising doubts about the outlook for the economy, according to IHS Markit. Its Purchasing Managers Index fell to a three-month low of 54.3 from a downwardly revised 56.3 in May, the company said in London. While that’s below what economists had forecast, it’s still above the 50 ...

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• 4 July

  Uber Technologies suffers setback in EU

  

  Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. suffered another setback in the European Union after an adviser to the bloc’s top court backed a French law that led to sanctions for top managers in the country. EU nations “may prohibit and punish the illegal exercise of a transport activity such as UberPop without having to notify the” European Commission of the draft law, ...

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• 4 July

  SUVs save the day again as total US car demand softens

  

  Bloomberg June US sales show automakers are still selling lots of expensive trucks and sport utility vehicles, a bright spot that’s rescuing profitability in a market forecast to decline from last year’s record sales. Deliveries of Toyota Motor Corp.’s RAV4 spiked 25 percent, while Honda Motor Co.’s HR-V saw a 35 percent gain, according to Autodata Corp. Toyota, Honda and ...

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• 4 July

  UAE says still awaiting Qatar response to Arab demands

  

  Reuters­­­­ / Bloomberg United Arab Emirates foreign minister His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan said on Tuesday that Arab countries boycotting Qatar over its support for terrorism were still awaiting a response to their demands via mediator Kuwait. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt are pressing Qatar to shut its Al Jazeera news TV station and scale ...

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