Technology giant Apple is expected to raise at least $5bn by issuing bonds on Monday.
Some of the funds raised will be used for Apple’s share buyback programme. The California-based company plans to return more than $130bn to shareholders by the end of this year.
The move comes despite the company sitting on a cash pile of $178bn.
Apple will raise less than half the $12bn generated in April 2014 when it was last active in the US bond market.
A year earlier it raised $17bn.
President Obama is set to send his 2016 budget proposal to the newly Republican-led Congress as early as Monday, and news of what’s in it has already begun to emerge–namely, plans for spending increases.
While small businesses could expect a slight economic boost from more government spending, experts say, the budget debate is likely to be weighed down by intense partisan rancor that may offset any potential gain. Among other events, there’s a threat of more skirmishes over the debt ceiling and another government shutdown.
There’s been a lot of fear about the future of artificial intelligence.
Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk worry that AI-powered computers might one day become uncontrollable super-intelligent demons. So does Bill Gates.
But Baidu chief scientist Andrew Ng—one of the world’s best-known AI researchers and a guy who’s building out what is likely one of the world’s largest applied AI projects—says we really ought to worry more about robot truck drivers than the Terminator.
In fact, he’s irritated by the discussion about scientists somehow building an apocalyptic super-intelligence. “I think it’s a distraction from the conversation about…serious issues,” Ng said at an AI conference in San Francisco last week.
Following the most wonderful time of the year is a season that strikes fear in the hearts of many small business owners: tax time.
Shelling out a substantial percentage of the year’s income is stressful enough, but tax season also brings with it a great deal of complexity and confusion. Tax laws are constantly changing and being revised, and it can be difficult for small business owners to keep up. And what adds even more stress to tax filing is that even innocent mistakes or oversights can lead to big penalties.
Five workers at Disneyland have been diagnosed with measles in an outbreak that California officials trace to visitors at the Anaheim (Calif.) theme park in mid-December. Disney is urging its 27,000 workers at the park to verify that they’re inoculated against the virus, and the company is offering tests and shots on site for workers who are unvaccinated. “We’re doing everything that we possibly can to proactively communicate to our cast members,” said Disney spokesperson Lisa Haines.
Disney won’t, however, require workers to get routine vaccinations as a condition of employment. Almost no companies outside the health-care industry do. “Our policies are consistent with other employers’ policies on this issue,” said Haines, noting that airports, hotels, and other businesses whose staffs encounter lots of potentially contagious travelers don’t mandate immunization. She declined to say how many Disney workers have been inoculated since the outbreak. Three of the workers who caught measles have recovered and returned to work.
v.19 n. 05 – Released January 26, 2015
Google is gearing up to sell wireless service directly to customers as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), by acquiring excess network capacity from Sprint and T-Mobile and reselling it to customers under its own brand. This is the same approach used by Cricket Wireless, MetroPCS, Pure Talk, Republic Wireless and many others in the U.S., but Google’s arrangement apparently required special consideration, according to The Wall Street Journal, given the potential threat network providers perceived in giving the search giant and Android maker too much control.
v.18 n. 54 – Released January 21, 2015
Microsoft just took another big step toward the release of Windows 10 — and revealed it will be free for many current Windows users.
The company unveiled the Windows 10 consumer preview on Wednesday, showcasing many new features in the latest version of the operating system that powers the vast majority of the world’s desktop PCs. It also surprised the tech world with an ambitious take on virtual reality, called Windows Holographic, powered by a new kind of device called the HoloLens.
The developer preview has been available since Microsoft first announced Windows 10 in the fall, but it was buggy, limited in scope and very light on new features
As one calendar year draws to a close, and another is set to be begin, many business leaders are thinking about their challenges for the next 12 months.
They are weighing up any number of potential choices and factors; from expansion plans, to new products, whether to change suppliers, and how everything fits into the economic backdrop.
It is the time of year when forward planning comes to the forefront of people’s minds.
Here, 10 business leaders profiled in 2014 for the BBC’s The Boss slot, share their top tips on running or setting up a company in 2015.
