News

Verizon and Mastercard partner to bring 5G contactless payments Verizon and Mastercard announced a partnership focused on 5G contactless payments for consumers, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. They hope to have some innovations from the partnership by 2023. The collaboration aims to enable businesses to use emerging payment technologies to turn smartphones into cash registers, to turn wearables like watches as payment devices, and to facilitate touchless retail similar to Amazon Go stores. The partnership looks to further digitize and disrupt global consumer spending at retailers and other merchants, which the payments giant estimates to be around $50 trillion annually. “5G will enable the small-and-medium business to handle transactions more quickly and focus on what they are really delivering to customers,” noted Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. “You can use 5G to create more frictionless ways of transacting with your customers and focus on your business. In the end, the way I look at it from our businesses, we’re building a long-term market for us to grow into.”

Microsoft plans to give a $1500 pandemic bonus to employees worldwide Microsoft will give out $1500 bonuses to many of its employees after more than a year of impact from the coronavirus. The gesture is part of an effort by technology companies to keep employees happy during the pandemic and make sure they stick around while many are still away from offices. The bonuses will cost Microsoft about $200 million and are a gesture to show appreciation for efforts that employees made with customers and partners in the past year. At the end of the first quarter, the company had over $125 billion in cash, equivalents, and shortterm investments. Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, announced the news about bonuses in a message to employees, noting that the bonuses will go out in July or August 2021 to employees in the US and abroad, although Microsoft’s corporate vice presidents won’t receive them, nor will employees of Microsoft’s GitHub, LinkedIn, and Zenimax subsidiaries.

Vauxhall owner Stellantis to invest $35,5bn in electric vehicles The world’s fourth-biggest carmaker — Stellantis — which was formed in January from the merger of Italian-American firm Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA, is gearing up to compete with electric vehicle leader Tesla and other big car manufacturers. It plans to invest at least $35,5 billion in vehicle electrification and new software/technologies through 2025. The company said it expects to have 55 electrified vehicles in the US and Europe by 2025. That includes 40 all-electric models and 15 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. It’s a different strategy from other automakers such as GM that has announced plans to eventually only offer all-electric vehicles. Stellantis said it would build at least five battery plants in Europe and the US to support its strategy. It has already announced two plants in France and Germany, and the third will be in Italy in Termoli. The company said it wanted to focus on keeping the vehicles affordable and sustainable. However, a spokesman declined to indicate what sort of prices Stellantis intended to charge for passenger cars. “This transformation period is a wonderful opportunity to reset the clock and start a new race,“ Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares said. “The group is at full speed on its electrification journey.“

Nissan to build huge new battery ‘Gigafactory’ in Sunderland, bringing 6200 jobs Japanese car giant Nissan is to build a new electric model and huge battery plant in the UK in a massive boost to the automotive industry. More than 1600 jobs will be created in Sunderland and an estimated 4500 in supply companies thanks to the $1,4 billion investment. More than $570 million will be invested in building a new-generation all-electric vehicle, which is yet to be named. A new ‘gigafactory’ will be built alongside the plant, making batteries for up to 100,000 vehicles per year. It is hoped the new plant will be producing batteries in time for 2024 when the level of UK-made components in UK-made cars is required to start increasing in line with the terms of the UK’s trade deal with the European Union, where most of Nissan’s Sunderland-assembled cars are sold. Industry sources expect the scale and size of the new facility may closely match that of a new facility in Douai, France recently announce by Renault — which is a major shareholder in Nissan and a partner in a global manufacturing alliance. Nissan president and chief executive Makoto Uchida noted that “This project comes as part of Nissan’s pioneering efforts to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the entire lifecycle of our products.“

Revolut becomes UK’s most valuable Fintech firm ever The banking and payments app Revolut has become the most valuable British fintech firm on record after a new funding round pushed its valuation to $33 billion. The company, founded by the former Lehman Brothers trader Nik Storonsky in 2015, announced that it had raised $800 million from new investors Tiger Global Management and the major Japanese investment group SoftBank, which now holds a near 5 percent stake in the business. It means the London-headquartered company has attained a valuation six times higher than last year when it was valued at $5,5 billion.In a statement, Storonsky said the valuation was “an endorsement of our mission to create a global financial super-app that enables customers to manage all their financial needs through a single platform“. Karol Niewiadomski, the senior investor for SoftBank, noted that the company’s “rate of innovation has redefined the role of financial services, placing [Revolut] at the forefront of Europe’s nascent neo banking sector. The company’s rapidly growing user base reflects a sustained demand for Revolut’s expanding suite of services.” Revolut says it plans to use the investment to expand into the Indian, the US, and other international markets.

Burberry sales return to pre-pandemic levels due to young shoppers Luxury fashion retailer Burberry has reported a rebound in sales to pre-pandemic levels, driven by a boom in younger buyers, with products such as leather goods, jackets, and shoes proving particularly popular. Burberry, which operates 454 stores, concessions, and franchises worldwide, said it had made a “great start to the year” and that the takeover allowed it to stop the discount pricing strategy used in stores and in the UK line around the world during the coronavirus crisis to try and boost sales. “Full-price sales accelerated as our collections and campaigns attracted new, younger luxury customers to the brand,” said Marco Gobbetti, who announced last month he would stand down as chief executive after almost five years. “We have made an excellent start to the fiscal year. Despite the continuing challenging external environment, we are very pleased with the progress against our strategy.” Social media activity, featuring celebrities such as the footballer Marcus Rashford, the singer FKA Twiggs and the model Kendall Jenner have also helped draw in younger shoppers despite restrictions on international travel which have hit tourist sales. Burberry stated sales of products at full value have been up 121 percent in contrast with final year, and up 26 percent in contrast with 2019. Full-price sales online more than doubled in contrast with pre-pandemic.

SoftBank invests $1,7 billion in Korea’s Yanolja ahead of IPO SoftBank’s Vision Fund has invested $1,7 billion in Yanolja, the South Korean travel and leisure firm, as it seeks to build on rapid pandemic-induced growth in Southeast Asia, India, and Africa. Yanolja, which provides cloud-based booking and other systems for hotels and travel companies, says demand for its systems has jumped as the spread of Covid-19 put companies under intense pressure to introduce contactless services and cut costs. “Powered by AI, we believe Yanolja is a leader in transforming the travel and leisure industry in South Korea,“ said Greg Moon, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. Yanolja declined to comment on the stake Vision Fund is receiving or its valuation based on the investment. But the deal is expected to represent a large increase over its previous valuation of more than $1 billion in 2019 when Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and US firm Booking Holdings invested $180 million. Founded as an online booking agency in 2005, Yanolja only launched its cloud business in 2019.

Facebook and Instagram will invest more than $1 billion in content creators Marc Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, announced Wednesday that he will invest more than $1 billion to pay content creators on Facebook and Instagram. This investment would be in an effort to compete against TikTok, the Chinese short video application, which became the first rival mobile app to hit 3 billion global downloads. “We want to build the best platforms for millions of creators to make a living, so we’re creating new programs to invest over $1 billion to reward creators for the great content they create on Facebook and Instagram through 2022.“ Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook wall. “Investing in creators isn’t new for us, but I’m excited to expand this work over time. More details soon,” he added. Facebook said the idea is to reward creators, especially those just starting out. It will include a new bonus program that pays eligible creators for hitting certain milestones when they use Facebook’s tools and provide seed funding for creators to produce their own content. Moderna is being added to the S&P 500 Moderna, one of the leading COVID-19 vaccine providers, is set to join the S&P 500, the broadest measure of the US stock market. When the S&P made the announcement late afternoon of July 15, shares of Moderna (MRNA) surged 10 percent the next morning on the news. The stock is now up nearly 175 percent this year, giving Moderna a market valuation of more than $100 billion. The biotech company, which has already delivered over 100 million COVID-19 vaccines, will replace Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is being acquired by AstraZeneca on July 21 according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. S&P said the index change will take effect before the market opens next Wednesday. Moderna is on track to deliver 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses this year and is aiming to increase that number by 2022 to up to 3 billion doses. The company makes one of the three coronavirus vaccines that is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Drug giant GSK to create up to 5000 jobs as it plans huge biotech center Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is launching a development plan that is set to create up to 5000 new jobs in the next 5 to 10 years. The hub, which will be in GSK’s existing location of Stevenage, will make it one of Europe’s largest biotechnology ‘clusters’ and early-stage life science companies. The development of the new site is expected to begin in 2022. “The past 18 months have shown the UK life sciences sector at its best and the UK has recently unveiled an ambitious 10-year vision for the UK life sciences sector,“ said GSK senior vice president Tony Wood. “Our goal is for Stevenage to emerge as a top destination for medical and scientific research by the end of the decade,“ he added. GSK has come under pressure recently from shareholders to reconfigure its businesses amid criticism over its performance. The company is a leading vaccine maker but has been late to develop one for Covid-19. Its Covid vaccine, which is being developed with France’s Sanofi, is still undergoing trials.