NexOptic Technology Corp (TSXV: NXO)
You’ll Never See The World The Same Way Again
Ant Group is reportedly planning to stop taking investor orders for the Hong Kong leg of its IPO on Wednesday, a day earlier than scheduled, as the record stock sale has already been heavily subscribed.
The potential move would bring the closing in line with the Shanghai leg of its dual offering. The company’s Hong Kong shares are slated to begin trading on Nov. 5 at HK$80 ($10.32) apiece, with the Shanghai portion expected at the same time at 68.8 yuan ($10.27) each.
Ant, which is a third owned by Alibaba (NYSE:BABA), is seeking to raise about $34.5B through the concurrent IPOs, but may also pull in another $5.17B if a greenshoe option is exercised.
The blockbuster listing will make fintech giant the biggest IPO of all time and one of the most valuable finance firms on the planet.
Putting it in perspective: Ant will have a market value of at least $315B, according to recent filings, about the same valuation as JPMorgan and four times larger than Goldman Sachs. The sale also vaults Jack Ma’s fortune to $71.6B, a long way for the English teacher which founded Alibaba for $60,000.
“Ant is not only important to Alibaba merely due to just the increasing value of the equity stake. There is also a fairly tight interchange of data between the businesses,” writes Integrator in a SA article, Alibaba: As Compelling Now As Ever.
A judge has set next steps in the Justice Dept. antitrust lawsuit against Google (GOOG, GOOGL).
There is a status hearing set for Friday at 10 a.m., to be held by phone, Bloomberg reports.
The U.S. filed its landmark case last Tuesday, with a focus on the payments the company makes to preserve monopolies in search and search advertising.
Bloomberg sources say Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will announce new AirPods and AirPods Pro models early next year.
The new entry-level model will look physically similar to the current Pro (shorter stem and replacable tips) and offer improved battery life but won’t have the premium features.
The new Pros could eliminate the bottom stem to feature a rounder design, but sources say Apple has struggled to integrate noise cancellation and other Pro features into the smaller body. The end product could look different when finalized.
The wearables will feature new wireless chips from Luxshare Precision Industry and Goertek.
The new AirPods join Apple’s plans for branded high-end, over-ear headphones.
Apple has also reportedly considered releasing another HomePod model to fit in between the $299 original version and the recently announced $99 HomePod Mini.
The Wearables, Home and Accessories segment brought in $6.5B in revenue for Apple last quarter, up 70% Y/Y.
Sales will likely grow with the launch of the new iPhones, which don’t include headphones in the box.
Apple shares are down 0.9% pre-market to $114.
Facebook Gaming (NASDAQ:FB) is launching cloud-streamed games on the Facebook app and on browser, a move that will expand its content library to include more-complex and multiplayer titles.
Its free-to-play model is in contrast to the paid, subscription cloud-gaming services of rivals like Google Stadia (GOOG, GOOGL) and Microsoft’s xCloud (NASDAQ:MSFT).
“More than 380M people play games each month on Facebook, and people will play cloud-streamed games,” said Jason Rubin, Facebook’s vice president of play.
“Our first set of games available this week include Asphalt 9: Legends by Gameloft; Mobile Legends: Adventure by Moonton; PGA TOUR Golf Shootout by Concrete Software, Inc.; Solitaire: Arthur’s Tale by Qublix Games; and WWE SuperCard by 2K,” according to a blog post.
“They’re going to walk before they run,” added Lewis Ward, research director of games and virtual and augmented reality at International Data Corp. “They saw Stadia fall on its face, so they’re tamping down expectations out of the gate. It’s probably a 10-year investment strategy to get to where they want to go.”
Facebook’s service will launch on the desktop web and Android, but not iOS due to terms and conditions of the App Store. “Apple treats games differently and continues to exert control over a very precious resource.”
AudioCodes (NASDAQ:AUDC): Q3 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.38 beats by $0.07; GAAP EPS of $0.20 misses by $0.02.
Revenue of $56.56M (+10.0% Y/Y) beats by $1M.
Non-GAAP gross margin of 67.4%; Adjusted operating margin of 23.7%.
