It’s too soon to be doubting Apple
By Robert Cyran
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
It’s too soon to be doubting Apple. Fears over a slowing U.S. smartphone market and chip problems sent investors scurrying in April, when the company’s shares tumbled by over 10 percent. But the iPad maker smashed expectations yet again, almost doubling profit in the latest quarter. The trends powering Apple – China, rising margins and the halo effect – still have legs.
Spotify’s $4 billion pitch sounds high
By Quentin Webb
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Spotify’s pitch to prospective shareholders looks ambitious. The online music-streaming firm boasts rapid growth and a popular friend in Facebook. But it lacks the economics of the best dot-com hits.
Space mining plan more than just sci-fi fantasy
By Kevin Allison
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Shady corporation sends robot army into space to mine precious metals from asteroids. That’s the basic setup of Blade Runner, the sci-fi epic that hit cinemas 30 years ago this June. It’s also the business plan for Planetary Resources, a U.S. startup that has outlined its strategy to take the mining industry into near-Earth orbit. The economics look challenging, to say the least. But the idea is not completely bonkers.
I find it alarming that it takes billionaires to bring to the forefront an industry that has been in the planning for decades. All of a sudden it is a “credible” venture. There are many of us that have believed in space mining as a viable business and some of us have even been working at making it happen.
One thing to remember is that an introduction of $50billion worth of Platinum to the supply would greatly affect its price. I believe that more strategic minerals such as the REE (rare Earth elements) are a more viable mining option.
Murdochs’ UK political friendships backfire on all
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
The Murdochs’ UK political friendships are backfiring on all concerned. Fresh revelations about the media moguls’ relationships have created new uncertainty over News Corp’s part ownership of UK satellite broadcaster BSkyB. They also have the potential to throw the UK’s coalition government into a full-blown crisis.
Markets threaten no growth, no austerity Europe
By Ian Campbell
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Global equity and commodity and euro zone debt markets are at risk of a sizeable correction. French and Dutch political uncertainty and a worsening European recession will feed global concerns about growth and debt. The deepest worry is that as Europe’s economy weakens, the uncertainty about how to address the crisis only increases.
Facebook infected by Google’s antitrust limbo
By Rob Cox
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Facebook hasn’t even gone public yet. But it looks as though the social network is already being viewed with concern by acquisition targets. Instagram, the revenue-challenged, lightly staffed startup Facebook just agreed to acquire for $1 billion, has snagged a whopping 20 percent break fee if the sale isn’t consummated by December. That’s a wise safety measure given the life cycle of mobile apps. It could also be a comment on Facebook’s lurking antitrust risks.
Wal-Mart scandal demands spirit of Sam Walton
By Rob Cox
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
S. Robson Walton, Wal-Mart’s multi-billionaire chairman, is about to prove money can’t buy happiness. He’ll need to channel his father’s spirit of integrity and initiate an independent probe into how top executives, possibly the chief and another director, participated in an alleged cover-up of widespread bribery and corruption at the company’s successful Mexican subsidiary. It won’t be fun for the son of Wal-Mart’s founder. But the $213 billion company can recover by doing the right thing.
We didn’t know what was going on. Morelia, a 475 year old Mexican colonial town, population close to 1 million, had several local Mexican supermarket chain stores, Comercial Mexicana, Soriana, Aurrerá. Wal-Mart owns also all of the over 30 large supermarket stores from Aurrerá in this town alone. They had one Wal-Mart Super Center, the type you rarely see in California. Suddenly, in less than two years, Walmart has set up three more Super-Centers and many smaller size convenience stores in town, most very close to their rival Mexican chains, like Soriana, Mexicana, Oxxo and others. Other chains have had to struggle with government commercial red tape for setting up a new store and most have not been able to succeed due to official controls. One issue we have failed to recognize is that the recently new ruling party, the PAN, seems to be showing that they can also fall into corruption when the price is right.
Cambodia must solve two big problems for takeoff
By Martin Hutchinson
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Cambodia must solve two big problems to achieve the kind of rapid, sustained growth Asia’s tiger economies have delivered. Opening its stock exchange on April 18 is a good start – it shows the country is relatively friendly to foreign investors and markets. But meeting the needs of a rapidly growing population will be expensive, and Cambodia’s corruption is both dreadful and pervasive.
GE offers Citi starting point for fixing CEO pay
By Agnes Crane and Antony Currie
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
All is not lost for Vikram Pandit. While a majority of Citigroup shareholders voted against the chief executive’s pay package at this week’s annual meeting, there’s still a way to incentivize him while also benefiting investors. General Electric, which faced similar unrest over pay last year, offers a good starting point.
Don’t blame Japan for foreign CEO departures
By Wayne Arnold
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
It’s not Japan’s fault that the country is losing foreign CEOs. The country’s insular culture may have added to the frustration of departing bosses at Nippon Sheet Glass, Olympus and even Nomura. But merger pains, fraud and headstrong directors are problems everywhere. The more they go abroad, the more Japanese companies will have foreign executives.
“As foreign shareholdings rise and more Japanese retire, demand for international management skills will rise.”
You nailed it.It’ll be great to see guys named Bo, Jiang, and Lee snap up some cheap Japanese assets with the billions they’ve stashed offshore and play a few rounds of golf with the Old Boys in Tokyo. Now that Foxconn’s parent owns Sharp, the sky’s the limit. Nothing like mutual business interests to bring neighbors closer together. We nominate Gu Kailai to be Chairwoman of Kirin Brewery.
Gambatte!
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Breakingviews: G8 should preach on taxJune 18 - G8 leaders needs to be tax reform evangelists at home and abroad, says Breakingviews. And Turkey’s caught between a domestic rock and an EU hard place.Video
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