The US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether US movie studios violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when signing agreements with Chinese officials, Reuters reported. The regulator sent inquiry letters to at least five studios, including News Corp’s (NWS.NASDAQ) 20th Century Fox, Disney (DIS.NYSE) and DreamWorks Animation (DWA.NASDAQ), over the past two months, said […]
Category: Tech, Media & Telecom
Shares of Baidu (BIDU.NASDAQ) fell more than 10% on Tuesday after the company announced that it expects to report revenue of US$847-866 million for the first quarter, below analyst projections, Bloomberg reported. Baidu has been looking to target larger advertisers with its search-engine keywords to counteract China’s cooling economic growth. It has also been expanding […]
Apple (AAPL.NASDAQ) released better-than-expected quarterly results due in part to surging demand for its iPhone in the Greater China market, Reuters reported. The US technology giant sold some 35.1 million iPhones worldwide in the quarter ended March, boosted by a five-fold increase in sales in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. However, other analysts said that […]
E-commerce website Alibaba.com (1688.HKG) said its first quarter net profit dropped 25% annually to US$54 million, the lowest since the first quarter of 2010, after a shift in its business model led to shrinking membership sales, Bloomberg reported. The company’s revenue increased 3.7% to US$253.1 million for the first three months. Slimmer profits were due […]
Japan e-commerce retailer Rakuten (4755.TSE) announced that it will discontinue its online shopping mall in partnership with Baidu (BIDU.Nasdaq) due to tough competition and underperforming sales, MarketWatch reported. Rakuten, Japan’s biggest e-commerce retailer, launched its Chinese online shopping mall Lekutian in October 2010. The site will close at the end of May, owing in part […]