Benzinga Before The Bell: Apple's Strong China Revenue, Amazon's EV Partnership, Jack Ma To Cede Control Of Ant Financial And Other Top Financial Stories Friday, July 29

Reuters

Tencent’s Overseas Ambitions Face Resistance From India

• India blocked a popular battle-royale format game from Tencent Holding Ltd TCEHY backed Krafton Inc over data sharing and mining concerns in China, Reuters reports.
• India removed the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) app from Alphabet Inc’s GOOG GOOGL Google Play Store and Apple Inc’s AAPL App Store on July 28.
• The removal of BGMI, which had over 100 million users, follows its 2020 ban of another Krafton title, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG).

Wall Street Journal

Alibaba Shares Bleed As Jack Ma Braces To Cede Control Over Ant: Report

• Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA co-founder Jack Ma plans to surrender control of Ant Group Co to sharpen its initial public offering prospects, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• China quashed Ant’s $34 billion-plus IPO in 2020 at the eleventh hour, forcing the technology firm to restructure as a financial holding company regulated by China’s central bank.
• As the overhaul progressed, Ant aimed to reduce the company’s reliance on Ma, whose outspokenness had cost the IPO in 2020. Ma personally contemplated surrendering control of Ant for years to beat corporate-governance risks arising thereof.

Shortage of Aircraft Parts Endangers Additional Air Travel Delays: Report

• Another issue that poses a threat to interrupting air travel is how difficult it is for airlines to find engines and other replacement parts to keep their planes flying.
• Facing a labor shortage this summer, airlines could not fly their planned schedules, resulting in Passengers facing delays and cancellations.
• The resurgence of air travel has taken both aircraft manufacturers and their supply chains off guard, making it difficult for part manufacturers to raise production rapidly enough to meet the demand for both new and already in-service aircraft.

Ernst & Young’s Pensions Debt Slows Negotiations Over Historical Split: Report

• Ernst & Young’s effort to split its audit and consulting businesses has hit a speed breaker due to change in U.S. leadership and complications regarding its debt, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people familiar with the matter.
• A decision by the firm is now expected in mid-August at the earliest, according to internal EY documents.
• Carmine Di Sibio, EY’s global chairman and CEO, said the firm had record revenue of more than $45 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30, up 13% Y/Y.

Instacart Plans To Go Public By 2022-End

• Grocery delivery and pick-up service provider Instacart Inc is planning to go public before the end of 2022.
• The move comes as a surprise as the volatility in the market is high, and 2022 is being labeled as one of the slowest years for IPOs in more than a decade.
• The company filed for an initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2022.

Bloomberg

Microsoft Scores With US Army Googles Amid Odds

• The Appropriations Defense Subcommittee cut $350 million from the Army’s procurement request for more than $400 million in fiscal 2023 for the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, a customized version of Microsoft Corp’s MSFT HoloLens goggles, Bloomberg reports.
• The Senate panel cited unresolved technical concerns.
• The panel reserved concerns over IVAS’s continued software, hardware, and user-acceptance challenges.

Jack Ma Goes On Euro Trip After Stepping Back From Business Empire: Has China Eased Pressure On Him

• Chinese business magnate and co-founder of Alibaba Group Holdings BABA Jack Ma was reportedly spotted in Europe after largely disappearing from public view for almost two years.
• The 57-year-old Ma was seen in restaurants in Austria, toured a university in the Netherlands to learn about sustainable agriculture, and docked his yacht off the Spanish island of Mallorca, according to Bloomberg, which also cited local reports.
• Although it was not the billionaire’s first trip outside China since he criticized Xi Jinping’s Communist Party officials in 2020, it signals the Chinese government’s easing pressure on him after he stepped back from his business empire, as per the report.

Benzinga

US Regulators Instruct Voyager Digital To Stop Duping Investor With Fraudulent Claims

• The Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp issued a joint letter to Voyager Digital Ltd VYGVQ, urging it to refrain from falsely claiming customers’ fund protection by the government.
• The U.S. banking regulators suspected the crypto firm guilty of deceiving customers by dubious claims, which recently declared bankruptcy.
• The regulators highlighted Voyager’s false claims indicating itself being FDIC-insured, claiming that the FDIC would insure customers against the failure of Voyager itself.

AstraZeneca Q2 Highlights: Profits Fall, COVID-19 Vaccine Sales Dip, Lifts Annual Sales Guidance

• AstraZeneca Plc AZN Q2 profits fell sharply on ballooning costs linked to its Alexion takeover. The net profit was down 68% Y/Y (75% on constant currency) to $247 million.
• Core EPS reached $1.72, +92% (+89% CC).
• The company clocked Q2 sales of $10.77 billion, +32% (+38% CC), beating the consensus of $10.53 billion.
• AstraZeneca’s best-selling product Tagrisso for lung cancer saw revenues increase 7% to $1.4 billion, while sales of cardiovascular and diabetes treatment Farxiga jumped 51% to $1.1 billion.

Why Active Ethereum Wallets Have Spiked Above 1M For First Time In 6 Years

• Ethereum ETH/USD saw a massive surge in transaction volume on Thursday. On-chain clues led analysts to the root cause behind the sudden uptick in activity.
• On July 28, Ethereum’s daily active addresses surged above one million for the first time in six years.
• The last time the network saw such a sharp surge in daily address activity was when ETH underwent a DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack in 2016.

Bausch Health To Appeal Expected Court Decision On Xifaxan Patents

• Yesterday, Bausch Health Companies Inc BHC stock closed 50% lower after the reports on the order on patent litigation over Xifaxan (rifaximin).
• The company shares gained a bit after it said to appeal a decision that would likely invalidate patents related to Xifaxan.
• “We are disappointed with today’s development. We strongly disagree with any conclusion that our patents are not valid and intend to file an appeal to any such order,” said Thomas Appio, CEO of Bausch Health.

Celsius Users Need To Be Wary Of Phishing Scams Attempting To Steal Bitcoin, Ethereum, Analyst Warns

• Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius on Friday confirmed that a list of customer emails had been leaked in a data breach and an analyst is warning against phishing emails that could target the affected users.
• In a July 26 email to customers, Celsius informed them that their emails had been leaked by an employee at one of its data management vendors.
• Celsius said the vendor in question was Customer.io — the same one involved in the data breach on the NFT marketplace OpenSea.

Cryptocurrency Exchange Zipmex Seeks Bankruptcy Protection

• Cryptocurrency exchange, Zipmex said it has filed for bankruptcy protection in Singapore.
• On 22 July 2022, Zipmex’s solicitors in Singapore, Morgan Lewis Stamford LLC, filed five applications under Section 64 of Singapore’s Insolvency, Restructuring, and Dissolution Act 2018 on behalf of several of the Zipmex Group’s entities.
• The exchange has sought global moratoriums to prohibit and restrain the commencement or continuation of proceedings against the companies for a period of up to six months.

Tim Cook Pulled Off A ‘Top Gun Maverick’ With Strong Apple China Revenue: Analyst Reacts

• Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Apple Inc AAPL CEO Tim Cook pulled off a “Top Gun Maverick” type feat for posting strong revenues from China despite COVID-19 shutdowns.
• The Apple Analyst: Ives maintained his “outperform” rating on Apple with a 12-month price target of $200.
• The Apple Thesis: Noting the revenues originating from China, Ives wrote in a note seen by Benzinga, “The all-important China region posted revenues of $14.60 billion coming in just below their year-ago performance of $14.76 billion.”

Amazon Highlights EV Partnership With Indian Auto Giant Amid Earnings Beat

• While reporting upbeat earnings on Thursday, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN also highlighted its partnership with Indian auto giant Tata Motors Limited ADR TTM.
• The Partnership: Amazon signed an agreement with Tata Motors to include the new Tata Ace electric vehicle as part of its delivery fleet. The new drive vehicle (EDV) was co-developed with Amazon and will contribute to the company’s goal of having 10,000 EDVs on the road in India by 2025, the retailer said in a press statement.

Amazon Sued Over Allegations It Failed To Properly Address Death Threats Aimed At Black Workers

• A former Amazon.com, Inc AMZN employee along with 25 co-workers alleged that the retail giant forced them to work in a dangerous environment in the backdrop of racist graffiti discovered at an Illinois warehouse.
• Tori Davis and 25 other workers made the allegations in complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, reported Engadget, citing Chicago Tribune’s coverage.
• Davis, who is Black, reportedly brought up Amazon’s handling of an incident involving racist death threats scribbled on a bathroom in the company’s MDW2 warehouse located in Joliet, Illinois.

Facebook Parent’s Metaverse Unit Loses $2.8B In Q2, But Zuckerberg Sure Of Unlocking’ Billions, Trillions’ In Value With Time

• Meta Platforms Inc META has reported a $2.8 billion loss in its Reality Labs (RL) division in the second quarter.
• In an earnings release on Wednesday, the company reported a $2.8 billion loss from the RL segment while recording an income of $11.2 million from its Family of Apps (FoA), including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
• The RL division’s loss took Meta’s total income from operations down to $8.3 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg Doubles Down On Facebook And Instagram’s Mutation Into TikTok

• Meta Platforms Inc META CEO Mark Zuckerberg says one of the transformations at the company is that social feeds are going from being driven by people to being driven by artificial intelligence.
• Zuckerberg, talking at Meta’s second-quarter earnings call, touched on the changes happening to the company-operated Facebook and Instagram social media platforms.
• “Right now, about 15% of content in a person’s Facebook feed and a little more than that of their Instagram feed is recommended by our AI, from people, groups, or accounts that you don’t follow. And we expect these numbers to more than double by the end of next year,” said Zuckerberg.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons