By Abhirup Roy (Reuters) – Ratan Tata, the former Tata Group chairman who put a staid and sprawling Indian conglomerate on the global stage with a string of high-profile acquisitions, has died, the Tata Group said in a statement late on Wednesday. He was 86. Tata, who ran the conglomerate for more than 20 years as chairman, had been undergoing intensive care in a Mumbai hospital, two sources with direct knowledge of his medical situation […]
Tag: business
Tokyo stocks rebound after US records
TOKYO, March 29, 2024 (AFP) – Tokyo markets opened higher on Friday after the Dow and S&P 500 closed at new record highs on Wall Street. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 0.48 percent, or 193.04 points, to 40,361.11 in early trade, while the broader Topix index rose 0.58 percent, or 16.03 points, to 2,766.84. “Tokyo shares are expected to start strong after the Dow and the S&P 500 hit all-time highs,” brokerage house Monex […]
Asia’s McDonald’s experiencing system outage
TOKYO, March 15, 2024 (AFP) – Hungry McDonald’s customers in parts of Asia had trouble ordering at stores, on phones and at electronic kiosks on Friday after a system outage. In Japan, it experienced “a system failure” and was “temporarily suspending operation at many outlets”, the US fast food giant wrote on X, formerly Twitter. China was also affected for several hours, with the outage a hot topic on social media platform Weibo. The company […]
League of Legends maker Riot Games to slash 530 jobs
LOS ANGELES, Jan 23, 2024 (AFP) – League of Legends maker Riot Games said Monday it will cut around 530 jobs worldwide, describing the layoffs as “a necessity.” The layoffs at Riot — owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent — follow a turbulent year for the gaming industry, with job cuts at major firms including Electronic Arts and Ubisoft. Riot has developed global hits including League of Legends and Valorant, but said it had launched […]
Business confidence up among Japan’s big manufacturers
TOKYO, Dec 13, 2023 (AFP) – Confidence among Japan’s largest manufacturers has risen for a third straight quarter, a key survey showed Wednesday. The Bank of Japan’s Tankan survey showed business confidence rising to a reading of plus 12, up from plus nine three months earlier. The poll reports the difference between the percentage of firms that are upbeat and those not, with a positive figure meaning more businesses feel optimistic. The headline figure — […]
TikTok owner ByteDance cuts hundreds of jobs in gaming division
BEIJING, Nov 27, 2023 (AFP) – Chinese tech giant and TikTok owner ByteDance is slashing hundreds of jobs in its gaming unit, a source familiar with the matter told AFP on Monday. The move marks a retreat from the competitive video gaming sector. Nuverse, a video game publisher that is a subsidiary of Beijing-based ByteDance, is currently conducting a round of layoffs that will affect “several hundred people”, said the source. “We regularly review our […]
Sam Altman to return as OpenAI CEO after shock ouster
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 22, 2023 (AFP) – ChatGPT creator OpenAI announced Tuesday that Sam Altman would return as its CEO, days after his shock dismissal plunged the pioneering artificial intelligence firm into crisis. Hundreds of OpenAI staff had threatened to quit following Altman’s sacking on Friday, demanding in a letter released to the media the resignation of the board, as speculation swirled about the future of the company. His dramatic exit also sparked intense lobbying […]
OpenAI staff threaten mass exodus to join ex-CEO Altman
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 21, 2023 (AFP) – Hundreds of staff at OpenAI threatened to quit the leading artificial intelligence company on Monday and join Microsoft, deepening a crisis triggered by the shock sacking of CEO Sam Altman. In a fast-moving sequence of events, Altman, who was ousted by the board on Friday, has now been hired by Microsoft where he will take the lead in developing a new advanced AI research team. There was talk […]
Microsoft to hire OpenAI’s Sam Altman after sacking
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20, 2023 (AFP) – Microsoft announced Monday the hiring of OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman following his shock sacking from the company whose ChatGPT chatbot has led the rapid rise of artificial intelligence technology. OpenAI has appointed Emmett Shear, a former chief executive of Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch, as its new CEO despite reported pressure from Microsoft and other major investors to reinstate Altman. OpenAI’s board sacked Altman on Friday, with US media […]
Cathay Pacific rebounds to first-half profit as travel picks up
HONG KONG, Aug 9, 2023 (AFP) – Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific on Wednesday swung to a healthy profit in the first half of the year thanks to a pick-up in travel, with the airline expecting passenger capacity to reach 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels by end of the year. The airline said it made a $546 million profit in January-June, rebounding from a loss of $640 million in the same period last year. It […]
Everybody hurts: Los Angeles suffers as Hollywood strike hits 100 days
BURBANK, United States, Aug 9, 2023 (AFP) – In his dry cleaning shop near the Warner Bros. and Disney studios, Tom Malian looks in despair at a carousel mostly empty of the shirts, jackets and pants it held before Hollywood went on strike. Film and TV production ground to a halt 100 days ago when writers downed their pens, only to be joined on the picket lines in mid-July by actors. The double strike emptied […]
Russian PM arrives in China for talks with Xi, business forum
SHANGHAI, China, May 23, 2023 (AFP) — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has arrived in China, Moscow’s foreign ministry said, for a visit in which he will meet with President Xi Jinping and ink a series of deals on infrastructure and trade. Mishustin arrived late Monday in Shanghai, the ministry said, where he was greeted at the airport by Moscow’s ambassador to China Igor Morgulov and Beijing’s top diplomat to Russia Zhang Hanhui. He will […]





