Shares of data networking companies, including Cisco Systems Inc, tumbled after a media report that Amazon.com Inc’s cloud unit might begin selling its own switching devices.
Amazon Web Service’s (AWS) plan to enter the US$14 billion global market for the equipment that helps shepherd traffic around networks, signals the company might become more entrenched in the enterprise computing marketplace, the Information reported, citing a person with knowledge of the discussions.
It would pose a formidable challenge to existing players, including Juniper Networks Inc and Arista Networks Inc, because AWS would price the so-called white-box switches from 70 to 80 percent less than compatible ones from Cisco, the Web site reported.
Cisco relies on hardware for more than half of its revenue, and switches and routers comprise the two biggest hardware products.
Its shares on Friday fell as much as 6.1 percent to US$40.94 in New York.
Juniper Networks fell as much as 3.9 percent to US$27.40, and Arista slipped as much as 6.2 percent to US$261.16.
Every time Amazon makes a move into a new industry, those companies’ stocks shudder as the market considers the consequences on market share and pricing power.
Shares of drugstore companies, including Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp, sank nearly 9 percent on news late last month that Amazon was acquiring prescription drug delivery company PillPack.
Shares of grocers, such as Kroger Co, plunged when Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market Inc for more than US$13 billion in June last year.
Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group