AstraZeneca has discontinued its COVID-19 vaccine globally. Tiktok and its parent Bytedance have fled suit in a US court against the Biden administration's legislation aiming to either ban the app or trigger its divestiture. Amazon Web Services has announced investment plans in Singapore. Reddit has reported its first quarterly earnings since going public. Read all this and more in today's (May 8) edition of World Street.
Packing up
AstraZeneca has announced that it will discontinue its COVID-19 vaccine due to an abundance of alternative updated vaccines globally since the onset of the pandemic. The company has also confirmed plans to withdraw the marketing authorisations for its vaccine, Vaxzevria, across Europe. Media reports indicate that the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker also accepted in court documents that the vaccine can lead to adverse effects such as blood clots and reduced blood platelet counts.
Stating that numerous other COVID-19 vaccines have been developed, resulting in an excess of updated options, AstraZeneca highlighted a decreased demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being produced or distributed.
Fighting back
Social media platform TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance have filed suit in a US Federal Court seeking to halt a law recently signed by President Joe Biden. The legislation in question mandates the divestiture of the popular short video app, which boasts of 170 million American users, failing which it would face a ban.
The companies filed their lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, contending that the law infringes upon various aspects of the US Constitution, notably the First Amendment free speech protections. Signed by Biden on April 24, the law gives ByteDance until January 19, 2025 to divest TikTok or risk being banned.
Reining in Huawei
The US has revoked certain licences permitting companies to export goods, including chips, to Chinese telecommunications equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies, which is already the subject of export controls by Washington. As per a Reuters report, some companies received notifications on Tuesday indicating the immediate revocation of their licenses.
This action follows the recent debut of Huawei's inaugural AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro, equipped with Intel's latest Core Ultra 9 processor. The move will henceforth prevent Intel and Qualcomm from selling their chips to the Chinese company for use in its laptops and smartphones.
Money, Money
Reddit's shares soared 14 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday following the release of the company's quarterly results—the first since its IPO in March. Revenue shot up 48 percent to $163.7 million compared to the previous year. Ad revenue hit $222.7 million, up 39 percent year-on- year, surpassing the growth rates of its rivals. However, Reddit reported a net loss of $575.1 million, mainly due to expenses related to its IPO, totaling $595.5 million.
Bad health
Steward Health Care, which is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, is aiming to sell all 31 of its US hospitals. In a court hearing in Houston, attorneys representing Steward stated their intention to finalise these sales by the end of summer, aiming to tackle the company's $9 billion in liabilities.
Despite the bankruptcy, Steward aims to ensure the continued operation of all its hospitals over the long term, according to a Reuters report.
Flying to cloud nine
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to invest an additional 12 billion Singapore dollars (approximately $8.87 billion) over the next five years to expand its cloud infrastructure and services in Singapore.
Priscilla Chong, AWS Singapore's country manager, stated that the investment will focus on the construction and enhancement of data centre capabilities associated with the Asia-Pacific Singapore region.
AWS, the cloud computing division of US tech giant Amazon, established its first Asia-Pacific region in Singapore in 2010, marking its initial expansion beyond the US and Europe. Since then, it has invested over SG$11 billion in Singapore's cloud infrastructure and ecosystem.
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