Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is suspending the delivery service for third-party sellers on its platform starting June, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.What Happened The service called "Amazon Shipping" was available in only a few handful cities in the United States, the Journal noted.Ahead of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the e-commerce giant was seemingly looking to establish it as a competitor to prominent delivery companies likes United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) and FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX)."We understand this is a change to your business, and we did not take this decision lightly," Amazon is said to have told shippers, according to the Journal. "We will work with you over the next several weeks so there is as little disruption to your business as possible."The pandemic significantly increased the demand for Amazon services as widespread lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus forced a majority of people to...
(Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group AG and Haitong International Securities Group were among the biggest participants in a series of margin loans to Luckin Coffee Inc.’s founder before accounting fraud allegations at the high-flying Chinese company triggered a collapse in the stock and caused him to default, a person with knowledge of the matter said.The banks were part of a group that extended margin debt to Luckin Chairman Lu Zhengyao across three funding rounds, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the matter is private. Haitong put up $140 million, while Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse lent about $100 million each, the person said. Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and China International Capital Corp. also had smaller exposures, the person said, adding that a portion of the loans were repaid before the default.Goldman Sachs said in a statement on Monday that an entity controlled by...
Tesla said it planned to resume normal operations on May 4, barring any significant changes, according to an email sent to U.S. employees by in-house counsel Valerie Capers Workman, which was viewed by Reuters. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The coronavirus pandemic has slashed U.S. demand for cars and forced several other automakers to furlough U.S. workers....
China'a internet regulator ordered search engine Baidu to clean up improper information and halt the spread of "low-brow content." China's powerful internet regulator, Cyberspace Administration of China, said in a post published on Wednesday on its official WeChat account that Baidu's content review on some of its news feed channels is not "strict," therefore "it has exerted bad influence to the society."...
Chinese video-on-demand service company iQIYI Inc. (NASDAQ: IQ) has been fudging user numbers since before its initial public offering in 2018 in New York, and has continued to do so, short seller Wolfpack Research said in a report Tuesday.What Happened According to Wolfpack, iQIYI inflated 2019 revenue by about $1.1 billion to $1.8 billion, 27% to 44% over its actual revenue.The Baidu Inc.-owned (NASDAQ: BIDU) company did this by inflating the actual number of users on its platform by 42% to 60%.Wolfpack said it surveyed 1,563 people among iQIYI's "target demographic" in China and found that about one-third of the company's users acquired their memberships through partner companies such as JD.com Inc. (NASDAQ: JD) or Xiaomi Corp. (OTC: XIACF).About half of these memberships were acquired for free or "near-free" under some "buy-one-get-one" offers.iQIYI counts the entire revenue from these memberships but writes off their partners' revenue as expenses. "This allows IQ...
U.S.-based securities analysis firm and activist investor Wolfpack Research has publicly accused Chinese streaming platform iQIYI of fraud. iQIYI “massively [inflated] its user numbers and revenue while at the same time hiding the fraud from auditors and investors by overpaying for content, acquisitions and other assets,” Wolfpack said. “IQIYI is nearing its 10-year anniversary and […]...
