The great tech shake-out
Meta was not the only big tech company to announce job
cuts. Stripe, an online payments firm, is letting go of 14% of its workforce, and Lyft, a ride-hailing company, of 13%. Amazon has introduced a freeze on hiring for its corporate jobs. Twitter laid off half its staff following Elon Musk’s takeover, though it has reportedly asked some of them to come back.
More than 12m people signed up to Disney+ in the three months to October 1st, taking the total number of subscribers to 164m. That is a faster rate of growth in users than at Netflix, though Netflix has 223m subscribers. Operating losses at Disney+ have soared, however, causing Disney’s share price to drop by 13%. Following Netflix, it is introducing an ad-supported subscription plan next month to entice consumers and generate new revenue streams.
Apple issued a rare warning about delays to supplies of the
iPhone. It now expects fewer shipments of iPhone 14 models, and longer waiting times for customers, because of covid-19 restrictions at the factory that assembles the device in Zhengzhou, China. The plant is operated by Foxconn, which has shifted some of the iPhone’s production to India, and may transfer more if China becomes an unreliable centre for production.
Advancing its ambitions in the electric-car market, Foxconn said it would invest $170m in Lordstown Motors, a startup that is developing an electricpowered pick-up truck at a factory in Ohio.
Renault is rearranging its business around five divisions, including one based on “new mobility, energy and data-based services”. The overhaul accelerates the flotation of its electric-vehicle unit, Ampere, next year. Renault also launched a joint venture with Geely, a Chinese carmaker, to make internalcombustion, hybrid and plugin hybrid engines. The arrival of electric cars has meant that the industry must shift gears “from soccer to pentathlon”, said Renault’s boss.
In Britain speculation mounted that the government will impose a road tax on electric
vehicles for the first time when it unveils a budget on November 17th. EVs are currently exempt from the tax, but the government is looking at ways to offset a fall in revenues from fuel duties because of the switch away from petrol to electric.
The global cryptocurrency market was shaken by the looming collapse of FTX, one of the biggest exchanges, after a run of customer withdrawals left it facing a liquidity crunch. FTX turned to Binance, an arch-rival, for help. Binance at first said it would take over FTX, but then pulled out of the deal, citing reports that FTX had “mishandled customer funds” and was being investigated by the authorities. Cryptocurrency prices plunged. Bitcoin fell to around $16,000, its lowest level in two years.
Nvidia has developed a new chip that can be exported to China without violating the American government’s ban on selling technology in semiconductors to the Chinese. The ban has hit sales of Nvidia’s high-end microchips for use in artificial intelligence, data centres and supercomputers.
Covid lockdowns affecting manufacturers and their suppliers lay behind a surprise fall in China’s exports, which dropped by 0.3% in October, year on year. Imports also declined, marking the first simultaneous contraction in both categories of trade since May 2020, in the heat of the pandemic. China, meanwhile, has become Russia’s top trading partner, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, after EU sanctions targeted the Russian economy.