Category: Information Technology

Final demerger of services business underway: Aurionpro Solutions

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Amit Sheth, Co-Chairman & MD of Aurionpro Solutions spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.

Sheth said that over last couple of years we have focused around restricting and simplifying the business and we are in the last leg of it.

He further said that we in the process of demerging remaining service business.

“The remainder within Aurionpro would focus around products in security, digital and banking space and we will also focus on government businesses,” said Sheth.

For entire interview, watch accompanying video.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple is launching medical clinics to deliver the ‘world’s best health care experience’ to its employees

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Apple is launching a group of health clinics called AC Wellness for its own employees and their families this spring, according to several sources familiar with the company’s plans.

The company quietly published a website, acwellness.com, with more details about its initiative and a careers page listing jobs including primary care doctor, exercise coach, and care navigator, as well as a phlebotomist to administer lab tests on-site.

This new primary care group will initially only serve Apple’s employees in Santa Clara County, where its headquarters are located. At present, it includes only two clinics.

Development appears to be well underway.

A job listing for the “network” posted on Indeed.com details “multiple, stunning state-of-the-art medical centers,” in Santa Clara, California, a few miles north of its headquarters in Cupertino. One of the centers is at the new Apple Park campus, another job listing states.

And a LinkedIn search reveals that at least former Stanford Health Care employees have been affiliated with AC Wellness for at least five months, although there’s no mention of Apple on the people’s profiles. Several of the job listings on Apple’s site as of February 27, however, describe AC Wellness as a “subsidiary of Apple, Inc.”

The news comes as Amazon has launched its own effort with Berkshire Hathaway and J.P. Morgan to improve health care for those companies’ employees.

Delivering better primary care is key to the success of all of these employee-led efforts, as it’s far cheaper to prevent disease than treat people who are already sick.

Health problems result in 69 million workers reporting missed days each year, reducing economic output by $260 billion per year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Aside from the typical roles involved with a primary care clinic, Apple is also looking to hire “designers” who will help implement a program focused on preventing disease and promoting healthy behavior. It’s looking for a population health designer and clinical program design lead, listings show.

These designers will work with operations and technology teams.

Sources said the company will leverage its medical clinics as a way to test out its growing range of health services and products, which it is starting to roll out to consumers at large.

It is currently working with Stanford to study whether its Apple Watch can detect irregularities with the heart’s rhythm, an effort that would benefit from a huge population of healthy and sick patients.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently told shareholders that it could make a “significant contribution” in health care.

Apple recently scaled back its contract with its current in-house clinic via a start-up called Crossover Health, which CNBC reported that it had considered buying.

Sources said that it started notifying third-party vendors about the shift to its own network of health clinics this week.

Additional AC Wellness jobs are also listed on Glassdoor and Indeed.com.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon surpasses Microsoft in market value for the first time

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon is now worth more than Microsoft.

Amazon’s market value — its closing share price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding — rose to $702.5 billion on Wednesday, and for the first time passed Microsoft, which is worth $699.2 billion as of the close of trading.

Only Apple and Alphabet are now ahead of Amazon among the most valuable companies in the world. Microsoft is fourth, followed by China’s Tencent and Facebook, as the six biggest companies by market cap all come from the technology industry.

Amazon climbed 2.6 percent on Wednesday to $1451.05, while Microsoft rose 1.6 percent to $90.81.

With Amazon’s 73 percent surge over the past year, CEO Jeff Bezos has become the world’s richestperson, surpassing — you guessed it — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Still, Microsoft shares have notched a 41 percent rally in the past 12 months and the software maker remains flush with cash.

The two companies come from very different places, with Amazon dominating e-commerce and Microsoft owning the desktop. But they’re now going head to head in cloud infrastructure, where Amazon’s big early lead is generating plenty of excitement on Wall Street.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Apple’s iPhone 7 Plus was the second-best selling phone in China last year

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Apple was the only foreign brand to have a smartphone model in the top 10 best-selling handsets in China in 2017.

The iPhone 7 Plus managed 2.8 percent of all sales in the world’s largest smartphone market, according to data from Counterpoint Research released Monday. Apple’s large-screen device trailed the Oppo R9s which gained 3 percent market share.

Apple’s iPhone 7, which was released in September 2016, did well in the first half of 2017, then benefited in the second half thanks to a price cut in China, Counterpoint analyst James Yan said in a blog post Monday.

Yan said the iPhone 7 Plus with the 128GB hard drive saw its price slashed around 16 percent.

The smaller-screen iPhone 7 was the fifth best-selling device in China with 2.4 percent market share.

“iPhone 7 Plus performed better than iPhone 7, demonstrating that currently in China market price may not be the only concern among consumers. Apple users may value more on better specs … than extra budget,” Yan said.

Vivo’s X9 and the Oppo A57 made up the other two phones in the best-selling smartphone top five list from Counterpoint.

Apple has struggled in the past two years in China but recent earnings show signs of a turnaround taking place. In the technology giant’s fiscal fourth quarter, revenue from Greater China was up 12 percent year-on-year.

China is an incredibly competitive smartphone market, and one where Samsung used to dominate. But it is now controlled by local Chinese players. Huawei accounted for 19.4 percent market share in the third quarter of 2017, followed by Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and then Apple, according to IDC data.

Huawei has been spending aggressively on marketing and this has paid off. It is now the third-biggest smartphone maker in the world by market share. The technology giant has gained share by releasing several smartphones at different price points to appeal to a broad range of consumers.

Oppo and Vivo, which are both owned by BBK Electronics in China, grew rapidly last year. They sell high spec phones at a mid-tier price in China, and have managed to gain share by selling their devices via offline channels, allowing them to expand their reach into smaller towns and cities.

“Instead of filling the market with extensive selection of models (like Samsung), OPPO have comparatively offered limited number of models and put more muscles behind promotion of key products,” Yan said.

Best-selling smartphones in China in 2017:

Oppo R9s
iPhone 7 Plus
Vivo X9
Oppo A57
iPhone 7
Oppo R11
Vivo Y66
Honor 8 Lite
Xiaomi RedMI Note 4X
Honor Enjoy 6X

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Mark Zuckerberg says technology doesn’t create more jobs, but increases pay

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Mark Zuckerberg says technology doesn’t necessarily create more jobs but does improve the pay of workers who get re-trained to take advantage of innovation in their industries.

Zuckerberg made the comments in a post after visiting an Oklahoma wind farm, part of what he says will be the last leg of his 2017 tour of the U.S.

“I’m in Oklahoma on the last trip of my Year of Travel challenge,” Zuckerberg wrote in the post, referring to his plan to visit all the states he hadn’t previously.

“I’ve got a few more stops and then Friday morning I’m doing a live discussion in Kansas about what I’ve learned this year,” the Facebook CEO wrote.

Zuckerberg, one of the world’s five wealthiest people, then turned his attention to the impact of technology on the nation’s workers.

“A lot of people focus on whether technology creates or destroys jobs. I’ve seen both this year –improving tech has created more jobs in some industries and in others it has eliminated jobs. But perhaps the more common dynamic I’ve seen is that the number of jobs stays about the same, but in order to operate the increasingly advanced technology, people need more training and therefore get more pay.”

Studies from several universities have suggested that technology will eliminate jobs in many professions in coming decades.

Zuckerberg also gave a plug to the renewable energy industry in a state usually associated with oil and gas production.

“I visited a wind farm outside Duncan. Oklahoma is oil country, and they’re still the third highest producer of natural gas of any state. But as technology improves and costs get lower, renewable energy is catching up. Oklahoma is on track to become the nation’s second biggest producer of wind energy behind Texas,” he wrote.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Broadcom makes an unsolicited bid for Qualcomm in largest tech deal in history

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Broadcom on Monday made an unsolicited offer to buy Qualcomm, in a bold bid to become a dominant supplier of communications chips to the wireless industry.

Broadcom Limited offered to buy smartphone chip supplier Qualcomm Incorporated for USD 70 per share or USD 103 billion in cash and stock, in what would be the biggest technology acquisition ever.

A tie-up would combine two of the largest makers of wireless communications chips for mobile phones and raise the stakes for Intel Corp, which has been diversifying into smartphone technology from its stronghold in computers.

Broadcom’s offer is at a premium of 27.6 percent to Qualcomm’s closing price of USD 54.84 on Thursday, a day before media reports of a potential deal pushed up the company’s shares.

Qualcomm shareholders would get USD 60 in cash and USD 10 per share in Broadcom shares. Including debt, Broadcom’s bid values the transaction at USD 130 billion.

Qualcomm shares were halted for trading in premarket trade.

Qualcomm’s stock, traded on the Nasdaq, surged by more than 12 percent on Friday amid speculation that Broadcom was preparing a bid. It finished the session at USD 61.81.

Broadcom has been working on its proposal for months and is believed to have approached Qualcomm privately about its offer, but was quickly rebuffed. The company had originally considered an attempt to buy Qualcomm prior to that company’s deal to buy NXP more than one year ago, but upon getting no traction at that time, retreated.

This time, Broadcom is determined to bring its offer to the attention of Qualcomm shareholders. People familiar with the company’s thinking indicate Broadcom will not shy away from initiating a proxy fight to gain seats on Qualcomm’s board of directors in support of its offer.

Qualcomm’s annual meeting is currently scheduled for March of next year with the deadline for nominating directors sometime in December.

Qualcomm, however, is expected to strongly resist Broadcom’s proposal. People close to the company expect it to indicate the offer price is far below what it would expect in a takeover. In addition, Qualcomm is expected to raise concerns that any combination with Broadcom would raise significant antitrust concerns.

While Broadcom is expected to indicate its willingness to let Qualcomm complete its deal to acquire NXP, it is also expected to encourage the company not to raise its current USD 110 cash deal to acquire the company. Qualcomm is under pressure from NXP shareholders to raise its bid for that chip company, or face the likely prospect it will not be able to meet the minimum threshold needed to take control of the company under Dutch law.

Officials at Qualcomm and Broadcom declined to comment.

(With inputs from Reutrers)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

1 billion could be using 5G by 2023 with China set to dominate

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The next revolution in mobile technology looks set to be led by China.

5G, the fifth generation of mobile network, doesn’t yet exist but aims to provide faster data speeds and more bandwidth to carry ever-growing levels of web traffic.

Analysts at CCS Insight predict the technology will be in place by 2020 and said in a report Wednesday that there will be more than one billion users of 5G by 2023, with more than half based in China.

“China will dominate 5G thanks to its political ambition to lead technology development, the inexorable rise of local manufacturer Huawei and the breakneck speed at which consumers have upgraded to 4G connections,” said Marina Koytcheva, VP Forecasting at CCS Insight.

CCS Insight said 5G will take off faster than any other previous mobile technology with the United States, South Korea, and Japan all battling to launch the first commercial network.

Exact technology specifications for 5G have yet to be agreed internationally and there are still uncertainties about the technology. These include how and where network operators will deploy vast numbers of new base stations, the lack of clear business case for operators, and consumers’ willingness to upgrade their smartphones, CCS Insight said.

In Europe, market fragmentation, the availability of spectrum and the influence of regulators bring additional challenges.

But several technology firms are trying to show progress in the 5G. Chipset manufacturer, Qualcomm, claimed this week that it had demonstrated the first working 5G data connection on a mobile device.

The speed generated in the test would allow users to download data at around 1,000 Mbps. One estimate suggested this would allow users to download a 2 hour HD film in around 12 seconds.

Qualcomm said the demonstration used their Snapdragon X50 NR modem chipset over a 28GHz millimetre wave spectrum band.

The 28 GHz millimetre wave spectrum band has been described as problematic because the radio signal at this frequency reportedly deteriorates if data is transmitted over more than a few kilometres.

The technology could also be important for technologies like driverless cars.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

China’s Huawei could overtake Apple this year in smartphones, says top analyst

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Chinese device maker Huawei could surpass Apple in the smartphone market this year, according to an analyst from a top research firm.

In the second quarter of this year, Huawei held a 11.3 percent market share, shipping 38.5 million units, IDC data show. Apple meanwhile shipped 41 million iPhones and had a 12 percent market share in the same period.

“Huawei is today the biggest challenger to Apple and Samsung. Indeed they are growing very fast. They will probably overtake Apple in the smartphone business, either this year or next year,” Francisco Jeronimo, research director for European mobile devices at IDC, told CNBC in a TV interview last week.

“And this is a huge challenge for Samsung because Huawei aims to become number one. And they are doing extremely well in terms of not just growing the number of units sold, but also in terms of value because for Samsung or for any smartphone maker, it’s not about shipping boxes anymore, it’s about making money. And we are seeing the prices going up and up.”

Huawei has been aggressively investing in its smartphone business in the past two years and has seen impressive growth. It has managed to launch phones at different price points, as well as challenge Apple and Samsung in the high end of the market.

Jeronimo pointed to the recent launch of Huawei’s own artificial intelligence (AI) chipset, known as the Kirin 970, as a reason why the Chinese firm could challenge the top two smartphone players.

The Kirin 970 is the size of a thumbnail and supports on-device AI. That means the AI functions are processed on the smartphone rather than in the cloud, which could speed up processes. If Huawei can prove that its AI chipset has boosted its smartphone’s capabilities, it could allow the Chinese firm to push prices higher and become number one in the market.

“This will give them (Huawei) an edge competing with other players because there are not many players that are able to launch their own AI chipsets. We think about Apple, Samsung, and Google have their own. All other vendors will have to rely on someone else,” Jeronimo told CNBC.

“If Huawei didn’t have this capability, they will be a few steps behind Apple and Samsung in a couple years. It’s crucial for them to lead. If the experience is better compared to Samsung or an iPhone, then it will give them an advantage in the long term.”

The company is holding an event on Monday in Munich, Germany, where it is expected to unveil new devices.

Huawei’s ambitions appear to be ahead of schedule. In an interview with CNBC in February 2016, Richard Yu, the CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, said he hoped the company would be number two in the smartphone market within three years, and number one within five years.

Still, Huawei trails the likes of Samsung and Apple in terms of both profits and revenues in the smartphone market. Sales in Huawei’s consumer business group, the majority of which comes from smartphones, hit 105.4 billion yuan ($16 billion) in the first half of 2017. In comparison, Apple saw iPhone revenue come in at $58 billion, while Samsung’s mobile sales were $45.6 billion in the same period.

Apple and Samsung also collectively account for around 94 percent of profits made in the smartphone market in 2016, according to data from market research firm Strategy Analytics.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

The retail tech giant that is now opening a pop-up bar to promote its alcohol products

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Eugene Kim
CNBC

Amazon is opening a new type of bar for only 10 days in Japan later this month.

Amazon Bar, according to the company’s website, will be located in Tokyo’s upscale Ginza area and serve a variety of drinks, including beer, wine, and whiskey.

But it comes with one caveat: there’s no menu.

The bar will instead deploy a recommendation system with Amazon sommeliers offering suggestions for different types of drinks. It will also serve special drinks that are only available at Amazon Bar, the website says.

The bar will launch on Oct. 20, and will be open to the public.

Amazon didn’t say why it’s opening the bar and for such a short period. The company has been introducing physical book stores and pop-up stores of late, while also expanding into the grocery space with the Whole Foods acquisition.

At the same time, Amazon has been moving into the alcohol business. In August, the company quietly expanded its one-hour wine delivery service in select U.S. cities. Last year, Amazon Japan launched a wine recommendation service by phone that featured its own in-house sommeliers.

An Amazon representative wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Google, HTC sign $1.1 billion cooperation agreement

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Alphabet subsidiary Google announced on Thursday that it signed a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement with Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC.

Under the agreement, Google will acquire a team of HTC employees, many of whom have worked with the company on its Pixel smartphone, as well as non-exclusive licenses to some of the Taiwanese company’s intellectual property to help bolster hardware efforts.

The move formalizes a long-awaited tie-up that could further Google’s ambitions in the mobile phone and virtual reality industries and may rescue HTC’s flagging business.

News of acquisition agreement comes after the Taiwan Stock Exchange said HTC’s stock had been halted, starting Sept. 21 local time, pending the release of “material information.” Some reports speculated that a deal with Google would be announced, based on previous information from sources. (HTC and Alphabet both declined to comment to CNC at the time of those reports).

Taiwan-based HTC once had as much as 10 percent of the smartphone market, according to estimates from Counterpoint Research. But despite a cult following, HTC’s market share has fallen since the end of 2011 to less than 2 percent. While HTC doubled down in North America and Europe, battling the immense resources of Apple and Samsung, other Chinese brands took hold in emerging markets like India, leaving HTC without a market to fall back to, Counterpoint’s Neil Shah wrote in a blog post.

Google, however, has provided a lifeline for HTC over the past few years. HTC built some of Google’s Nexus tablets, and Google worked closely with HTC on the manufacturing and assembly of its first-ever end-to-end phone design, the Pixel.

Google has indicated that making its own hardware, from home speakers to phones, will be a continued focus as the company tries to specialize its software for advanced artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Those types of features require powerful phones, and HTC could help Google make them.

Further, HTC makes the high-end Vive virtual reality system. It’s the third-most-popular headset in terms of shipments and market share, according to IDC estimates, which means that it likely has a strong base of app developers that could help Google compete with rivals like Samsung, Sony and Facebook.

Nonetheless, Google would inherit a company in dire straits — a Bernstein analyst reportedly suggested that HTC should cut half its staff, just to break even on its smartphone business. Google’s last big foray into mobile phone manufacturing — its acquisition of Motorola Mobility — ended in a big loss for Google.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow