Despite US Ban, Huawei registers 23% Increase in Revenue, Claims Chairman

Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies said on Tuesday that its revenue has been increased by 23.2 per cent year-on-year to USD 58.3 billion in the first half of the year, even as its top official admitted US sanctions would bring challenges in the coming months.

The US has banned Huawei, the world's leader in telecom equipment and the number two smartphone producer, over concerns of security and Washington has been pressuring other countries to restrict the operations of the Chinese telecom firm.

The Shenzhen-based company generated revenue of 401.3 billion yuan (USD 58.3 billion) in the first six months of the year, up from 325.7 billion yuan during the same period in 2018 due to a jump in smartphone shipments and robust demand for its 5G equipment, the company said.

The net profit margin was 8.7 per cent in the first six months, Huawei said in a press release here. Huawei's key business segments – consumer, carrier and enterprise – produced revenue of 220.8 billion yuan, 146.5 billion yuan and 31.6 billion yuan respectively, it said.

According to Huawei's Chairman Liang Hua, operations are smooth and the organization is as sound as ever, despite the US ban. The US ban on Huawei products prompted Google to withdraw its services to Huawei's future phones which could curtail access to its Android operating system. Huawei managed to boost sales despite the effects of being included on the US Commerce Department's Entity List, which prevents the company from buying American-made technology.

"There has been some impact on our business (from the US ban) such as intelligent computing and on our server and consumer business in non-China markets … but generally in the first half the impact has not been large," Liang was quoted as saying by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.

Liang said operations are smooth and the organisation is as sound as ever. He, however, admitted that with the US actions "objectively we are facing many difficulties."

With effective management and an excellent performance across all financial indicators, Huawei's business has remained robust in the first half of 2019, the press release said.

In Huawei's carrier business, H1 sales revenue reached CNY 146.5 billion, with steady growth in production and shipment of equipment for wireless networks, optical transmission, data communications, IT, and related product domains.

To date, Huawei has secured 50 commercial 5G contracts and has shipped more than 150,000 base stations to markets around the world, he said.

Last month, China gave green light to its major state-owned companies to start rolling out 5G services in its efforts to move ahead in the global race for setting up the super-fast telecommunications system. Beijing city has built 4,300 5G base stations in the city's urban core areas and iconic buildings to implement the superfast technology as the Chinese government started issuing 5G licenses to telecom firms.

Huawei released its first 5G smartphone, the Huawei Mate 20 X, on July 26. The 5G is the next generation cellular technology with download speeds stated to be 10 to 100 times faster than the current 4G LTE networks. The 5G networking standard is seen as a critical because it can support the next generation of mobile devices in addition to new applications like driverless cars. PTI KJV

Tesla Reports Second-Quarter Loss of $408 Million

Tesla shares have plunged as the electric carmaker reported a bigger-than-expected loss despite notching record car deliveries. Shares tumbled 10 per cent to US$238.39 in after-hours trading.

Tesla reported a second-quarter loss of USD 408 million, or USD 1.12 per share on Wednesday, compared to the loss of 40 cents forecast by analysts.

Overall revenues jumped 66 per cent from a year earlier to US$5.2 billion as Tesla reported sharply higher deliveries of its Model 3, the most affordable vehicle in its lineup and the hope for giving the company a wider customer base.

"We achieved record deliveries of 95,356 vehicles and record production of 87,048 vehicles, surpassing our previous quarterly records," Tesla said in a letter to investors.

"This is an important milestone as it represents rapid progress in managing global logistics and delivery operations at higher volumes." Tesla said Model 3 deliveries reached an all-time record of 77,634, making it "the best-selling premium vehicle in the US, outselling all of its gas-powered equivalents combined."

While Tesla cars have strong consumer appeal, investors have been frustrated by the pace of production and the ability of the company to hit its financial targets.
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Tesla, led by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, said it expects to turn a profit in the current quarter and is on track to launch local production of the Model 3 in China by the end of the year."We believe our business has grown to the point of being self-funding," the quarterly update said.

Musk said earlier this year that Tesla's autonomous driving technology was moving forward and that he expected to deploy self-driving "robotaxis" by 2020. But many analysts have been skeptical of his claims.

In April, Musk was required to reach a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission setting out clearer guidelines on topics he should avoid on Twitter or other social media, including statements about acquisitions, mergers, new products and production numbers. (AFP)

Flipkart Shows The Door To 700-1000 Underperforming Employees

It's said in the world of startups, it is always the survival of the fittest. Whether you're a company or an employee, you work, you perform, show results, only then you get to stay; otherwise it's ta-ta, bye-bye, sayonara and you're quickly shown the door. Flipkart, one of India's most successful e-commerce startup employees are currently facing this very scenario.

According to reports doing round in the media, the Indian e-commerce giant is letting go of its underperforming employees in line with its strategy to have a leaner organisation structure and make an optimum use of its monetary resources. Apparently, the company has already asked some 700-1000 of its employees to either resign or be sent off with severance pay.

Industry experts are considering this step taken by Flipkart as a response to the recent valuation slash down that the company faced by Morgan Stanley and its continuous trouble in finding funding from investors. Prior to this, Flipkart was in the news for deferring the joining dates of its IIMs campus recruits.

Currently an organisation of 30,000 employees, Flipkart's aim is to be profitable and sustain it. In the times, when the online retail industry is experiencing a lull period and witnessing a number of shutdowns, Flipkart’s strategy to strike a balance between its growth goals and costings seems like an intelligent decision on the part of the organisation.

Recently, the company even placed a cap on the salaries of its employees and put a curb on its discount pricing. It is also striving to cutback its monthly burn rate by approximately 50 percent from about $ 80-100 million in the first half of 2016 to $40 million.

Recent times have seen a number of startups going on a layoff spree in an effort to realign their resources and focus on their core areas. One of the major layoff this year has been Grofers which let go off 10 percent of its workforce this year in June. In addition to this, Hiree decided to fire about 80% of its workforce in April and was joined by InMobi letting go off close to 100 of its employees. January also saw more than 150 CommonFloor employees getting the pink slips when the former was acquired by Quikr.

In an effort to curb the rumours and regain the confidence of its employees, Flipkart has issued a statement stating, "As a performance oriented organisation, we have a transparent evaluation process in place. Employees are assessed in a fair, simple, transparent and development oriented manner. We use our review process to differentiate performance and maintain a high bar, which is reflected in our total rewards philosophy. The top performers are rewarded highly and promoted to the next growth level. The solid performers are accordingly recognized and groomed for future roles through mentoring, coaching and on-the-job learning opportunities. At times, we have employees who do not meet the performance bar. In those situations, we work closely with employees to enable them to improve their performance. In due course, if these employees are unable to make the desired progress, they are encouraged to seek opportunities outside the company where their skills can be better utilized. This is a fairly common practice across various industries- especially in high-performing internet organizations."

This is a developing story. Keep watching this space for more updates.