ZOOM OUT. The world may never go back to pre-pandemic business as usual, but with a vaccine on the horizon, unresolved issues are coming back into focus. For Zoom Video Communications, whose stock octupled this year before news of an inoculation reduced its share price by a quarter, its China conundrum is generating fresh headlines. U.S.
Technology giants from Facebook to Alphabet-owned Google have had their run-ins with the censors. Zoom, headquartered in California, is vulnerable because it has engineers in China: the company’s 2019 initial public offering prospectus showed almost a third of employees working there. It is opening a new research centre in Singapore, but that’s not the same as divesting from China. There’s no vaccine for toxic U.S.-China politics.
SILENT WRITE. Ben van Beurden has two final gifts for shareholders this year. The Royal Dutch Shell chief executive’s good news is a $2.5 billion sale of Australian liquefied natural gas facilities, helping him meet divestment targets; his bad news is another write-down. As with the $18 billion hit that the $145 billion oil major took earlier in 2020 when oil prices cratered, this $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion one reflects a weaker outlook.
Monday’s 4% drop in Shell shares, however, looks more about a similar drop in oil prices amid fears that a new strain of Covid-19 will further hammer demand. That would be a particular blow for oil groups like Shell that are yet to lay out specific targets for a switch to solar and wind power. Higher crude prices in the short term would offset a more leisurely renewables approach.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.