Major Global Markets News
In today’s global markets updates, we focus on possible US restrictions on Ant Group and Tencent, the IBM”s split into two public companies after 109 years and Square’s $50 million bitcoin purchase.
Trump Administration Mulls Restrictions on Ant Group and Tencent
Members of the Trump administration are debating on whether to restrict Tencent and Ant Group’s digital payment systems over national security concerns. According to a Bloomberg report, insiders in the administration are wary that Ant Group and other Chinese Fintech platforms will dominate the global digital payments scene, accessing banking and personal data of millions of people.
President Trump is yet to approve the idea.
News of the possible ban comes a few weeks before a $35 billion Ant Group IPO which will push its valuation to $250 billion. The dual listing will take place in HongKong and Shanghai.
IBM Splits into two to Focus on High Margin Cloud Services
IBM will split into two companies, spinning its lower-margin businesses into a new company to focus on its cloud business. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says the managed infrastructure services business of is Global Technology Services will form a new company
The company, which will launch by the end of 2021.
IBM will focus on the Hybrid cloud platform and the AI business, chasing the $ 1 trillion dollar hybrid cloud opportunity.
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The new company, “NewCo” which will launch next year will amass revenues from software and solutions portfolio, which now account for over 60% of IBM’s revenues. NewCo will be an independent company with about 90,000 workers spanning 115 countries.
Square Purchases Bitcoin Worth $50 million.
Lastly, in today’s global markets, Square Inc purchased 4,709 bitcoin priced at $50 million as part of its investment in Cryptocurrency. The purchase represents 1% of the company’s assets by the end of Q2. The investments represents Square’s elief into cryptocurrency, with Bitcoin’s potential to “be a more ubiqiotous currency in the future.”
In May, Square’s revenue from Bitcoin rose by 367% to $306 million against total revenue of $1.38 billion following the surge in demand for bitcoin well as the rise in active users.
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