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HomeNegotiations Ensue As Amazon Intends To Become Anchor Investor For Arm
Amazon.com (AMZN.O) is in talks about joining other technology companies as a cornerstone investor in SoftBank Group Corp’s (9984.T) Arm Ltd ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), people familiar with the matter said yesterday.
Disney Task Force Explores A.I. To Minimize Cost
Walt Disney (DIS.N) has created a task force to study artificial intelligence (A.I.) and how it can be applied across the entertainment conglomerate, even as Hollywood writers and actors battle to limit the industry’s exploitation of the upcoming technology.
Rivian Reassures Liquidity On E.V. Production Target
Rivian Automotive (RIVN.O) raised its full-year production forecast, and its chief executive said the electric vehicle maker has enough money to last it throughout 2025 as it keeps a lid on costs. Shares in Rivian were immediately up by 1% in a choppy extended trading. The stock soared nearly 80% in the past three months.
Today’s News
WeWork Inc. is a provider of co-working spaces which includes physical and virtual shared spaces. For the past four years, WeWork has been trying to deliver a revolutionary workspace, with — where a co-working startup has the ability to transform into a stable, profitable public company. It progressed by replacing Adam Neumann, its rambunctious co-founder and former chief executive officer with an industry veteran that boasts a reputation of saving tumultuous real estate companies.
However, fate was not in favor of WeWork, nor was it saved, and the co-working company now says there’s a “substantial doubt” it will even be able to stay in business.
The New York-based company is experiencing a cash leakage, and customers of its office rentals are canceling their memberships in bulk, WeWork said in a statement yesterday. Its stock instantaneously fell by an overwhelming 25% in extended trading.
In totality, WeWork’s stock is down by 85% in 2023, trading at a meager 19 cents. Its bonds are at deeply distressed levels. The company’s 7.875% unsecured notes are due in 2025, last changed hands for 33.5 cents on the dollar, according to sources.
Other stock-related news include:
WeWork Grasps On The Straws Of Hope
WeWork Inc. shares plummeted more than 25% in extended trading after publicly declaring its “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue its operations. The company cited sustained losses and multiple canceled memberships to its office spaces.
The co-working business will focus over the next 12 months on reducing rental costs, negotiating more favorable leases, increasing revenue and raising capital, WeWork said in a statement yesterday.
SoftBank Resumes Investments ‘Timidly’
SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund has recorded its first profit in more than a year and said that it is cautiously resuming investments to capitalize on the opportunities in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to date.
The Vision Fund invested approximately USD 1.6 billion in the June quarter after coming to a virtual halt as investors soured on money-losing startups. Still, this is just a fraction of the fund’s early spending pace.
China Deflation Affects Asian Shares
Stocks in Asia fell as investors digested consumer and producer price data from China that showed both measures registering contractions simultaneously for the first time since 2020.
Shares in Japan fell as benchmarks in mainland China and Hong Kong opened lower. This offset gains in South Korea while Australian equities traded mostly flat.
China’s inflation data showed a 0.3% drop in consumer prices in July from a year ago, less than the median forecast of a 0.4% contraction. Producer prices fell 4.4%, more than forecast. The Chinese currency extended gains driven partly by a stronger-than-expected yuan fixing.
