April 28, 2021
Huawei sales fell for the second quarter in a row as the Chinese telecom giant’s mobile phone business is buffeted by geopolitical tensions between China and the West.
As a private company, Huawei is not subject to the same strict reporting requirements as its publicly listed rivals. Its quarterly earnings reports typically disclose only unaudited revenue and net profit margin numbers. They are:
152.2 billion yuan ($23.5 billion) in sales revenue in the first three months of the year, a 16.5% decrease from the same time last year, when it reported revenue of 182.2 billion yuan.
An 11.1% year-on-year increase in net profit margin, which Huawei attributed to a $600 million check from a patent license and “ongoing efforts to improve quality of operations and management efficiency.”
April 27, 2021
A functioning vaccination program would appear to be the strongest weapon for halting the unrelenting march of India’s second Covid-19 wave. And yet, it is in a state of total disarray. The government’s failure to effectively negotiate prices and procurement could not only cost lives, but devastate the economy too.
On May 1, India will open up its Covid-19 vaccine drive to all people over the age of 18. In this phase, makers of authorized vaccines will be able to directly sell 50% of their stock to state governments and private hospitals.
In this new phase, it is up to state governments to decide whether all Indians could get their vaccines for free; the federal government already offers free shots for over 45s (plus frontline and healthcare workers).
April 19, 2021
Bitcoin arrived on one of the world’s most important exchanges, a watershed moment that could bring crypto from the fringes to the mainstream. The original virtual asset soared on optimism that it was an important step toward bitcoin becoming a fixture among institutional investors.
But we’re not talking about Coinbase’s IPO last week, an event that was seen as hallmark for the legitimization of crypto assets.
Instead, we’re talking about Dec. 2017, when bitcoin futures started trading on an exchange operated by Cboe Global Markets in Chicago. Futures were seen as an easy onramp for big time investors who are already plugged into Cboe, giving them a way to get exposure to crypto through a regulated exchange. Shortly after bitcoin futures went live on Cboe, a similar derivative also started trading on CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange. In May 2018, Goldman Sachs executives sat down with the New York Times to talk about their plans to trade bit
April 13, 2021
Austria’s health minister Rudolf Anschober resigned today (April 13), in the middle of a “third wave” of coronavirus infections. During an emotional press conference, Anschober said he is too burnt out and exhausted to carry on after a grueling 15 months.
Austria isn’t the only country to have lost its top health official this year. Since February the health ministers of Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Jordan, Brazil, and Slovakia have all stepped down due to scandals or political differences. Anschober is the first to do so explicitly for health reasons; he said he had already taken sick leave twice because of blood-pressure problems. “In the worst health crisis in decades the republic needs a health minister who is 100% fit,” he told reporters. “That is not currently me.”