Mastercard announced on Thursday its plans to halt the issuance of cards with a magnetic strip by 2033. The global financial firm will have strip-less debt and credit cards in Europe starting from 2024, and across the globe by 2033, Mastercard declared in a statement. The company claimed that it will be the first payments network to phase out the technology, which dates to the 1960s. “Magnetic strip is reaching its expiration date with […]
FinTech
Japanese operator Rakuten Mobile Inc. released on Wednesday its Q2 2021 financial report demonstrating a bursting operating loss increase of 85 percent year on year (YoY) amounting to $900 million credited to higher network-related expenses. Due to the semiconductor shortage, the firm’s costs soared as the network rollout was postponed for approximately three months. The […]
Robinhood Markets confirmed on Tuesday its first acquisition plans since the release of its initial public offering (IPO) earlier this month of obtaining venture-backed startup Say Technology for around $140 million in cash. The trading service company revealed the deal in a blog post from the company’s chief product officer, Aparna Chennapragada, without disclosing when […]
Amidst Washington’s deadlock with Beijing, China Telecom may potentially elevate its Shanghai’s initial public offering (IPO) to more than $8 billion leading to its biggest offering this year in the Shanghai Stock Exchange, following the firm’s delisting in its New York counterpart (NYSE) in January. Following Chinese media reports, the Beijing-based firm established its IPO at $0.70 per share, inflating the firm’s worth […]
Special-purpose acquisition company Athena Acquisition Corp. announced on Wednesday, alongside technology service provider Pico, definitive merger plans amounting to $1.75 billion. Pico Quantitative Trading – solutions provider to the financial market community – agrees to a merger with blank-check company Athena Acquisition, led by former The Bancorp CEO Betsy Cohen. The deal is set to […]
Emirates Telecommunications Group Company Etisalat marked on Thursday a 3.9 percent year-over-year increase in its first-quarter net profit following federal royalties to $1.28 billion, leading to a net profit margin of 18 percent, the company reported on Monday. In the UAE, the subscriber-based telecom company reached 12.1 million fixed and mobile subscribers in its domestic […]
Popular investing company Robinhood Markets began trading on Thursday its initial public offering at $38 a share, followed by a 10 percent drop, and closing at $34.90. This came following an announcement on Saturday its plans to launch U.S. retirement accounts as an endeavor to raise its bidding. The investing platform had aimed to raise […]
Uber shares tumbled on Wednesday with more than 4.5 percent in extended trading, following a report stating that SoftBank is selling around $2 billion worth of shares, in a definitive attempt to recover from lost bets on Didi and other investments. Japanese telecommunications and technology multinational conglomerate Softbank is selling a whopping 44 million shares […]
Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc, recorded on Tuesday a rising profit in second quarter revenue, despite heated antitrust regulations and prosecutions, the search giant marked its highest mark so far of quarterly revenue. Amidst the latest antitrust cold war between Big Tech companies and Washington in the last quarter, Google and Alphabet Inc. tallied in […]
Shares in Shenzhen-based media titan Tencent tumbled on Monday following China’s verdict to restrict its private music licensing deals with record labels around the globe, halting the platform’s efforts to show sovereignty over online music streaming in the country. On Saturday, China’s State Administration of Market Regulations (SAMR) announced that the firm is not abiding […]