U.S.

Accenture Cuts Jobs, Trims Forecasts on Worries of Lower It Spending

Accenture Plc on Thursday lowered its annual revenue and profit forecasts and said it would cut about 2.5% of workforce, or 19,000 jobs, the latest sign that the worsening global economic outlook was sapping corporate spending on IT services. More than half of the layoffs will affect staff at its non-billable corporate functions, the company […]

China Says It Has Never Deliberately Pursued Trade Surplus With U.S

China has never deliberately pursued a trade surplus with the United States, Shu Jueting, a commerce ministry spokesperson, said on Thursday, despite signs that China is continuing to reduce its reliance on American exports. Although American export data published on Feb. 7 shows that exports to China increased by $2.4 billion on the year to […]

EU Leaders Set to Back Steps to Compete with US, China

European Union leaders are expected on Thursday to back a revamp of the single market, simplified regulations and other steps to ensure the bloc can compete with the United States and China as an industrial leader in green and digital technologies. High energy prices and U.S. President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which offers $369 […]

Explainer - The Business of Water: No One-Size-Fits-All Approach

The United Nations wants to get people talking in New York this week about investing in safe water, sanitation and hygiene, which it describes as “the most basic human need for health and wellbeing”. Puzzles remains over how best to count the financial, social and environmental costs and benefits of water, but many investors now […]

US FTC Seeking Information on Cloud Providers’ Market Power

The Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday it is seeking information from the public on cloud computing companies’ business practices including details on their market power, competition and potential security issues. The U.S. cloud computing business is dominated by four providers that include Amazon.com Inc , Microsoft Corp, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Oracle Corp. None […]

UK Says Broadcom’s $61 Billion VMware Deal Could Hurt Server Competition

Britain’s competition regulator said U.S. chipmaker Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware could make servers more expensive, and it would refer the $61 billion deal to an in-depth inquiry unless its concerns were addressed. Broadcom agreed to buy the cloud computing and virtualisation company last year to diversify into enterprise software. Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) […]

TikTok CEO: App Has Never Shared US Data with Chinese Government

TikTok’s chief executive will tell lawmakers the Chinese-owned short video app with more than 150 million American users has never, and would never, share U.S. user data with the Chinese government amid growing U.S. national security concerns. “TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government. Nor […]

Australia Could Reap $11.3 Billion from Battery Sector by 2030 - Accenture

Australia’s revenue potential from developing a battery industry has doubled to A$16.9 billion ($11.28 billion) by 2030 in less than two years, highlighting the speed of the sector’s expansion and the need to act quickly, an Accenture report showed on Wednesday. Australia’s battery industry is poised to become a global leader given the country’s mineral […]

U.S. Seeks to Prevent China from Benefiting from $52 Billion Chips Funding

The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday released proposed rules to prevent $52 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research funding from being used by China and other countries deemed U.S. adversaries. The proposal limits recipients of U.S. funding from investing in the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing in foreign countries of concern like China and Russia and […]