The integration of Chinese IT manufacturer Lenovo and IBM's low-end server business has been completed in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Lenovo's business development and project management director for LatAm, Paulo Fernandes, told the Canalys conference in Rio de Janeiro that both companies have been working for the past six months on integrating operations. The US$2.3bn sale of IBM's x86-based server unit was signed in January.
Updated 6 Years ago

Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) forecast sales and profit for the holiday quarter that missed analysts’ projections, underlining the limits to Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos’s strategy of spending big to fuel growth. Revenue for the fourth quarter is anticipated to be $27.3 billion to $30.3 billion, the Seattle-based company said in a statement today, while profit excluding some items will range from a loss of $570 million to a gain of $430 million. Analysts on average projected sales of $30.9 billion and profit of $460.5 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Updated 6 Years ago

Fourteen months after Brazil began selling billions of dollars-worth of derivative contracts to shore up its currency, the strategy is proving ineffective and raising concern in financial markets. The real fell to a six-year low yesterday and is the world’s most volatile currency. Some analysts say the swaps, which are equivalent to selling dollars in the futures market and now amount to 27 percent offoreign reserves, are approaching critical levels. The opposition’s presidential candidate has indicated he’d discontinue their use.
Updated 6 Years ago

To Nelson Bunker Hunt, the world was full of enemies. There was inflation. It was running as high as 13 percent in the 1970s, like a thief threatening to steal the family fortune earned by his father, H.L., in the oil fields of East Texas. There was Muammar Qaddafi and the American oil men who collaborated with him. When Hunt and his brothers William Herbert and Lamar had refused to pay Qaddafi half their earnings from the Libyan oil fields, like their competitors had, Qaddafi had simply snatched the Hunts’ 8 million acres.
Updated 6 Years ago

Quantitative easing may turn out to be a gift that keeps on giving for the U.S. economy. As the Federal Reserve prepares to end its third round of bond buying next week, the central bank plans to hang on to the record $4.48 trillion balance sheet it has accumulated since announcing the first round of purchases in November 2008.
Updated 6 Years ago

Ello, which launched in August, has also become a Public Benefit Corporation, which prohibits its current and any future owners from breaking that promise. The network plans to make money by introducing micro-payments for additional features.
Updated 6 Years ago

News outlet Quartz described his 30-minute chat as making him sound "like someone was stepping on his face". Others were kinder. "This CEO is so cool, I want to cry," wrote one. Fellow chief executive - Apple's Tim Cook - was also in China, questioning officials about an alleged hack of its iCloud service.
Updated 6 Years ago

The payment follows new calculations by the EU, which determines how much each member state should contribute based on gross national incomes. It would add about a fifth to the UK's annual net contribution of £8.6bn. A government source said the budget demand was "not acceptable".
Updated 6 Years ago

The news comes after the firm reported a net loss of 2.8bn Australian dollars ($2.6bn; £1.6bn) for the 12 months to June - its biggest ever annual loss. Shares of the Sydney-listed airline rose more than 3% before midday. Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce made the announcement in Sydney at the company's annual general meeting.
Updated 6 Years ago

The software giant made $4.5bn (£2.8bn) in the three months to September, 13% lower than the same time last year. "Integrations and restructuring expenses" cost $1.1bn, Microsoft said. But the new Nokia business also boosted revenues. They climbed 25% to $23.2bn, beating expectations and sending shares higher in after-hours trading.
Updated 6 Years ago