Mining giant BHP Billiton has offered to acquire Anglo American. ByteDance said it had no plans to sell TikTok. Shares of Facebook's parent company plunged more than 10%. Chinese home appliance manufacturers have become the protagonists of Japan's new life business war. Microsoft, Google, IBM, Intel, Transsion, LG Electronics, SK hynix, Hyundai Motor, STMicroelectronics, Barclays, Unilever, AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Merck, Squibb, Ford, Caterpillar and Vale announced results. Australian mining giant BHP Group confirmed on Thursday that it had made an all-stock takeover offer to Anglo American plc, valuing the smaller rival at £31.1 billion ($38.8 billion). By Wednesday's close, Anglo American had a market capitalisation of £27 billion. Anglo American said it had received an unsolicited all-stock merger proposal from BHP Billiton and that the board was evaluating it. The company added that BHP's proposal came with the condition that Anglo American would first divest its platinum and iron ore operations in South Africa. If the acquisition goes ahead, it will mark BHP's return to large-scale deals.
ByteDance issued an article on the evening of the 25th: The news of foreign media about ByteDance's exploration of selling TikTok is untrue, and ByteDance does not have any plans to sell TikTok.
Meta Platforms said on Wednesday that spending levels will be raised by up to $10 billion this year to support the infrastructure investments needed for AI investments. Meta shares closed down 10.56% on Thursday. AI is a multi-billion dollar project, and there is no clear timeline for revenue. Investors' tolerance for huge corporate spending in the AI space is showing signs of weakness. At a time when the digital advertising business is booming, costs are falling in other areas, and cash is flowing back, Meta's shareholders are willing to support Mark Zuckerberg's AI ambitions. Now, with revenue growth slowing and costs rising, shareholders are becoming more cautious.
The market has seen a rush to build data centers to meet the explosive demand for artificial intelligence (AI), and the massive amount of components, space, and power required to build these megacenters to house supercomputers has led to a shortage of resources. Data center executives say delivery times for custom cooling systems are four times longer than they were just a few years ago. The lead time for standby generators has been extended from a minimum of one month to two years.
IBM announced plans to acquire cloud software developer HashiCorp in cash, valuing the latter at $6.4 billion. IBM said it expects the deal to close by the end of 2024.
Whirlpool, which owns the Metek and Amarna appliance brands, is laying off about 1,000 jobs globally to reduce costs as slowing U.S. home sales limit demand. The company has completed the first wave of office staff layoffs and plans to begin another round of layoffs soon. Earlier this year, the company said it would lay off workers, but did not disclose the number of layoffs. By the end of 2023, Whirlpool had 59,000 employees worldwide.
Chinese home appliance manufacturers are becoming the protagonists of Japan's new life business war. Seven out of five home appliances such as BicCamera and refrigerators are products of Chinese manufacturers. At home electronics retailers, Chinese manufacturers have shown a presence. EDION focuses on the sale of its own brand of complete sets of home appliances jointly developed with Hisense and Haier. Yamada Holdings, Japan's largest home appliance chain, outsources the production of its own brand products for new household applications mainly to Chinese manufacturers. According to the data, in the domestic home appliance market in Japan in 2023, refrigerators from Chinese manufacturers will occupy a 28% share. This has almost tripled in the last 10 years.
The world's top auto show, the Beijing International Automobile Exhibition, opened on April 25. In order to seize business opportunities in the huge market where electric vehicles (EVs) are rapidly spreading, automakers from Japan and abroad are releasing their latest models. In China, the world's largest automotive market, the shift to demand for "new energy vehicles" such as EVs and PHVs is rapidly advancing. There are also many new forces in the market, and enterprises are facing more and more fierce competition for survival. The show will run until May 4.
The Volkswagen Group expects to increase sales in China, the world's largest automotive market, and maintain market share until 2030. The German automaker said it has set an annual sales target of around 4 million units in China by 2030 — up 23 percent from last year, which means it will capture about 15 percent of the highly competitive market. Last year, the company had a 14.5 percent market share in China.
Toyota Motor announced that its global production in FY 2023 was 9,971,739 units, up 9.2% from the previous year and a record high. Due to the shutdown of the entire vehicle plant due to the suspension of the entire vehicle plant due to the certification violation of the Toyota Industries Group, the original target of 10.1 million units was not achieved. Global sales were 10,309,457 units, up 7.3% from the previous year. This is the first time that annual sales have exceeded the 10 million mark. On the other hand, the original target of 10.4 million units was not achieved due to the suspension of vehicle supply to Toyota due to certification violations by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Daihatsu Kogyo Co., Ltd.
Boeing spent nearly $4 billion in its most recent fiscal quarter, largely due to the financial impact of the Alaska Airlines air accident. The American aircraft manufacturer is grappling with the aftermath of the January air accident. The free cash outflow of $3.9 billion was slightly lower than the $4 billion to $4.5 billion the company warned in March, but contrasted with the $786 million outflow in the same period last year.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups filed a lawsuit to try to block an injunction that prohibits the use of non-compete agreements, opening a legal battle over the fate of contracts that prevent most employees from joining rival companies. The lawsuit was anticipated after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued an injunction on Tuesday, arguing that the FTC lacked the legal authority to issue the rule. Historically, the FTC has operated like an enforcement agency rather than a rule-making agency.
Moderna on Wednesday announced a partnership with heavyweight artificial intelligence (AI) company OpenAI, in a deal aimed at automating nearly all of the biotech company's business processes and facilitating ChatGPT maker OpenAI's expansion into the enterprise. As part of the deal, about 3,000 Moderna employees will have access to ChatGPT Enterprise, based on OpenAI's state-of-the-art language model, GPT-4, by the end of the week. Moderna said further integration of AI into more processes could help the company's plans to launch 15 new products over the next five years.
Creditors such as Burberry, Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Prada are owed £36 million after Matches Fashion's bankruptcy, and hundreds of suppliers may only receive less than a penny per pound. These luxury brands are among more than 500 unsecured creditors of Matches. Matches, an e-commerce site that was acquired by Mike Ashley's Frasers Group last December, went into receivership last month.
South Korea's Lotte Group (LOTTE) has decided to sell the "Lotte City" project in Shenyang, which was suspended in the middle of construction, to a state-owned enterprise in Huanggu District, Shenyang City. Lotte Group has signed a share sale and purchase agreement with Shenyang Huanggu Chengxin Development Real Estate Co., Ltd., and is going through the relevant procedures for the sale of the "Lotte City" project. Since 2008, Lotte Group has been promoting the Shenyang Lotte City project, and plans to invest in the construction of department stores, amusement parks, apartments, and hotels in the area. In 2018, Lotte Group sold all Lotte Mart stores in China, and in March 2019, it discontinued its food manufacturing business in China. At present, Lotte Group is moving forward with the sale of its last department store in China.
Financial Reporting Information
Transsion Holdings, the "King of African Mobile Phones", released its first quarter report for 2024. The company achieved operating income of 17.443 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 88.10%, net profit attributable to the parent company of 1.626 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 210.30%, and non-net profit of 1.354 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 342.59%, and the performance growth continued to be strong.
LG Electronics announced that the company's operating profit for the first quarter of 2024 (calculated on a consolidated financial statement) decreased by 10.8% year-on-year to 1.3354 trillion won. Sales were 21.0959 trillion won, up 3.3% year-on-year and the highest on a record year. By business segment, the H&A segment had sales of 8.6075 trillion won and an operating profit of KRW 940.3 billion, the automotive parts (VS) segment had sales of KRW 2.6619 trillion and an operating profit of KRW 52 billion, the TV (HE) segment had sales of KRW 3.492 trillion and an operating profit of KRW 132.2 billion, and the Business Solutions (BS) division had sales of KRW 1.5755 trillion and an operating profit of KRW 12.8 billion.
South Korean chip giant SK Hynix (SK Hynix) released a performance report, preliminarily verifying that its operating profit in the first quarter of 2024 was 2.886 trillion won, turning losses into profits year-on-year. The Flash (NAND) segment increased sales and successfully turned a profit. Sales surged 144.3% year-on-year to 12.4296 trillion won, the highest in the first quarter of the year. Net profit was 1.917 trillion won, which also turned a profit.
Hyundai Motor released an earnings report preliminarily verifying that its operating profit for the first quarter of 2024 decreased by 2.3% year-on-year to 3.5574 trillion won. Sales rose 7.6% year-on-year to 40.6585 trillion won, the highest on record for the same period of the previous year. Net profit for the period was 3.376 trillion won.
STMicroelectronics announces financial results for the first quarter of 2024. Net revenue for the quarter was $3,465 million, down 18.4% year-over-year, and net income was $513 million, down 50.9% year-over-year.
Barclays Group announces first quarter 2024 results. Total revenue was £6,953 million, down 4% year-on-year, and profit before tax was £2,277 million, down 12% year-on-year. Net interest income for the period was £1,549 million, down 4% year-on-year.
Unilever announced its first quarter 2024 results. Group turnover for the quarter amounted to 14,963 million euros, compared to 14,750 million euros in the prior-year quarter. Among the five major businesses, Beauty & Health generated a turnover of 3.187 billion euros, Personal Care & Personal Care 3.409 billion euros, Home Care & 3.192 billion euros, Nutrition & 3.388 billion euros and Ice Cream & Ice Cream.
AstraZeneca announces results for the first quarter of 2024. Total revenue was $12.679 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19%. During the period, product sales revenue reached US$12.177 billion, a year-on-year increase of 18%. Among them, the oncology business performed strongly, with sales of US$5.108 billion, a year-on-year increase of 26%; CVRM (cardiovascular, nephrology, metabolism) business sales were $3.06 billion, up 23% year-on-year. Operating profit for the quarter was $3,115 million, compared to $2,549 million in the year-ago quarter. Profit after tax for the quarter was $2.18 billion, compared to $1.804 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Sanofi announces results for the first quarter of 2024. Net sales for the quarter amounted to 10,464 million euros, compared to 10,222 million euros in the prior-year quarter. Among them, the pharmaceutical business generated 8.939 billion euros and the consumer healthcare business generated 1.525 billion euros. Net profit attributable to shareholders of the company for the quarter was 1,133 million euros, compared to 1,995 million euros in the prior-year quarter.
Merck announces first-quarter 2024 results. Total sales for the quarter were $15,775 million, compared to $14,487 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income for the quarter was $4.762 billion, compared to $2.821 billion for the same period last year. Among them, the sales of pharmaceutical business were 14.006 billion US dollars, compared with 12.721 billion US dollars in the same period last year. Animal health revenue was $1,511 million, compared to $1,491 million in the year-ago quarter.
Bristol Myers Squibb reports first-quarter 2024 results. Total revenue for the quarter was $11,865 million, compared to $11,337 million in the year-ago quarter. The quarterly net loss attributable to the company was US$11.911 billion, compared with a net profit of US$2.262 billion in the same period last year.
Southwest Airlines announced its first-quarter 2024 results. Quarterly revenue was $6.3 billion, up 10.3% year-over-year. Net loss was $231 million, compared to a net loss of $1.59 in the year-ago quarter.
Ford Motor announced financial results for the first quarter of 2024. Overall quarterly revenue increased more than 3% year-over-year to $42.78 billion, and net income decreased 24% year-over-year to $1.33 billion. Adjusted EBIT was $2.76 billion, down 18% year-over-year. Among them, automobile revenue was 39.89 billion US dollars. Ford Blue, Ford's traditional car business, reported a 13% decline in revenue to $21 billion. And the electric vehicle division continues to report losses.
Caterpillar announces first-quarter 2024 results. Total sales revenue for the quarter was $15,799 million, compared to $15,862 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income for the quarter was $2,856 million, compared to $1,943 million in the year-ago quarter.
Intel announced its first-quarter 2024 results. Net revenue for the quarter was $12,724 million, compared to $11,715 million in the year-ago quarter. Net loss attributable to the company for the quarter was $381 million, compared to a net loss of $2,758 million in the year-ago quarter.
IBM reports financial results for the first quarter of 2024. Revenue was $14.462 billion, up 1% year-over-year, and net income was $1.605 billion, a significant increase from $927 million in the same period last year. In the first quarter, the Software business unit (including the Hybrid Platforms & Solutions business and the transaction processing business) generated revenue of $5,899 million, the Consulting business unit (including business transformation, technology consulting and applications) generated revenue of $5,186 million in the first quarter, and the infrastructure business unit (including the hybrid infrastructure and infrastructure support business) generated revenue of $3,076 million.
Microsoft announced results for its fiscal third quarter ended March 31, 2024. Total revenue for the quarter was $61,858 million, compared to $52,857 million in the year-ago quarter. Net profit for the quarter was $21.939 billion, compared to $18.299 billion in the same period last year. Azure revenue grew 31% in the first quarter. Revenues from the Productivity and Business Process segment were $19.570 billion, the Intelligent Cloud segment was $26.708 billion, and the More Personal Computing segment generated revenue of $15.580 billion.
Google's parent company, Alphabet, announced its first-quarter 2024 results. Total revenue for the quarter was $80.539 billion, up 15% from $69.787 billion in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly net profit was $23.662 billion, an increase of 57% compared with $15.051 billion in the same period last year. Advertising revenue was $61.66 billion, Google Cloud revenue was $9.57 billion, and other business revenue was $495 million.
Vale announces results for the first quarter of 2024. Net revenue for the quarter was $8,459 million, compared to $8,434 million in the year-ago quarter. Quarterly adjusted EBITDA was $3,438 million, compared to $3,714 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income attributable to shareholders of the Company for the quarter was $1,679 million, compared to $1,837 million in the year-ago quarter.
Yesterday's audio replay:
Recommend an information account for the energy, chemical and power industries
![Jordan, which is surrounded by constant wars and lacks its own resources, can develop stably and survive in the cracks[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)