In the final quarter of 2012, the most important for retailers, the online shopping giant’s revenue grew by 22 percent to $21.3bn, about $1bn short of Wall Street forecasts. Reported holiday sales in the US were disappointing across the board, despite growth of 14 percent, according to ComScore, a research group. Amazon profits have diminished in recent years as the company has dedicated time and resources in longer-term growth, including the building of massive fulfilment centres, developing the Kindle Fire tablet business and developing its cloud services. Despite being lower than forecasts, analysts say that the end-of-year figures are p...
In ye olden days of social networking, MySpace was an unrivaled beast; it was undoubtedly the most popular option. All notions of MySpace’s uncontested manifest destiny were destroyed by the rise of its admittedly less-creepy, user-friendly Facebook. At the height of MySpace’s reign in December 2008, there were 76 million unique visitors. However, in December 2012, only 27.4 million hits were recorded—a misleading travesty of a number when comparing the total number of Internet users in 2008 with the 2012 number. Currently, there are about 2.4 billion Internet users, which represents a billion more users than the 1.4 billion in 2008. Ta...
The share drop came in the wake of Apple’s December results were announced. The company sold 47.8m iPhones in the three months to December, a year-on-year increase of 78 percent; revenues were up 18 percent to $54.4bn. However, the results fell significantly short of analysts’ expectations. Investors have expressed disappointment, in spite of reported net profits of $13.1bn and earnings per share exceeding Wall Street expectations and yielding $13.81 per share. Observers have suggested that Apple is losing its appeal with young consumers or even its ‘cool’ factor. “For Apple, of possibly more concern is the general perception that i...
In a long awaited speech, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has promised an in-out referendum on the country’s membership in the EU should his Conservative Party be returned to power following the next general election. Cameron said that the UK government will attempt to negotiate a new settlement with other European countries before putting the result to a vote by 2017. In the written version of the speech, the Prime Minister explicitly expressed his preference to remain in the EU but insisted that the institution should reform to ensure competitiveness and flexibility, as well as secure popular support from the British people. According to ...
The Moscow Stock Exchange has announced its IPO, but has so far not released any more concrete details. However, it has been confirmed that the banks handling the IPO will be JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, Sberbank and VTBank. Analysts have suggested it is too early in the IPO’s pre-marketing phase to pinpoint how much the offering might be worth, a source close to the deal told Fox Business it is expected to clock in somewhere between $4bn and $6bn. This estimate is likely based on the value of the merger of the MICEX and dollar-denominated RTS in 2011, which resulted in the creation of the Moscow Stock Exchange and was worth $4.5bn at the...
A Harvard degree is helpful toward getting a job, but the people that you will meet in college can be just as important as the name recognition that comes along with a big school like Harvard. The better your network and support systems are, the more likely you are to receive the job that you are looking for. A degree from Harvard is extremely helpful when it comes to finding a job. Harvard business school alumni know this very well. Your school’s name recognition can open the door to big firms and other companies, and if you did well in school, this is even more important. A 4.0 grade point average from Harvard will have more appeal to an ...
Though China’s GDP growth slowed to its lowest in 13 years, the country finished 2012 in a slightly stronger position reporting 7.9 percent growth in the last quarter, compared to 7.4 in the three months before. The overall growth rates for the year topped 7.8 percent, significantly higher than some estimates of 7.5 percent. The results are still the lowest since 1999. The growth spurt in the fourth quarter, however, is definitely encouraging. “Overall the economy has been stabilising,” according to a statement released by the national statistics bureau. The growth has been mainly driven by renewed investments in infrastructure by the g...
The World Bank has stated that despite weak growth forecasts countries should not be tempted by the quick fix of artificially stimulating their economies this year, and should instead invest in developing the backbone drivers of growth. New World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said: “The economic recovery remains fragile and uncertain, clouding the prospect for rapid improvement and a return to more robust economic growth.” He was speaking in response to the declining growth rates of large emerging economies like Brazil, India and Russia and the Japanese government announced a Y10.3tn stimulus package to help reawaken its economy. The World ...
Apple makes more money from its App store and iTunes than famous daily newspaper the New York Times. In fact, Apple makes more than all of these well-known companies combined. The best part about iTunes is that Apple generates revenue from its 435 million accounts and not from the sale of apps and music. Because the annual growth rate of iTunes is 35 percent, a remarkable rate, it allows Apple to ask for stipulation from the media companies thereby putting it in the position of power. If iTunes kept on growing with the same rate, observers believe that it will beat other industry giants, including Viacom Inc. in terms of revenue till 2014 ($1...
The EU has released a new draft of regulations that would force countries to take a greater participation alongside the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) rescue fund, or protect the fund against any losses accrued from rescuing banks. The plan was circulated among eurozone finance ministers at the end of last year but has now been made public. The plan has not been entirely well-received as critics worry that by encouraging a greater share of the financial burden of rescuing a failing bank, the EU will not achieve its goal of “breaking the vicious circle” between failed banks and struggling governments. Already countries like Ireland, Sp...