VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Global Revenue for IoT Devices in the Residential and Commercial Sectors is Expected to Total $732 Billion from 2016 to 2026, According to Navigant Research.

Starbucks sees the potential of its fast-growing China business to one day overtake the U.S. market. The company plans to open more stores in the next five years, half of which will be in the U.S. and in China as the brand remains attractive for the retailers.

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche has experienced an improved revenue this year. However, it also saw a decline in market cap as its invetors remain cautious on broader industry factors.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a directive to transfer $27 billion to the Public Investments Fund. The allocation to the sovereign wealth fund aims to diversify investments and lessen the country’s dependence on oil revenues.

Consumers took advantage of Black Friday's bargains, with online shoppers outpacing the number of people who actually lined up to avail of the incredible deals. This trend drove online sales to surpass the $3 billion mark, breaking records of sales from previous years.

China's industrial sector gets a boost in profit as it gained a 9.8% year on year growth in October. The upsurge was a reselt of the improvement in the country's raw materials sector.

As of midday Wednesday, after the victory of Donald Trump in the US Presidential Elections, the shares of companies under the Utilities sector has underperformed other sectors.

FedEx said in a statement that “a new entity competing” with the company will have to spend tens of billions of dollars to replicate its current extensive network. The statement, referring to Amazon’s new plan to get into the logistic business, also assured that FedEx’s relationship with Amazon remain strong.

Facebook’s WhatsApp announced that they will stop supporting older mobile platforms, including BlackBerry, Nokia, as well as older Android and Windows operating systems. The decision would allow the app to further improve its features beyond older smartphones’ capabilities.

The offer is part of the company's strategy to gain income amid the increasing use of ad-blocking softwares. Websites had been losing significant advertisement revenues and develop other alternatives to bring ad-free experience while keeping the business going. The offer will start next week for $3.99 per month or $1 weekly.

Schlumberger Ltd, on Thursday, reported a net loss of $1 billion for the fourth quarter and also said that it has axed 10,000 additional employees, as an effort to adjust its resource and cost base.

In an Oracle court proceedings against Google, it was revealed that the search engine company could be paying Apple at least $1 billion in revenue-shares. The payment was made to keep Google's search bar on Apple devices. A source named the sharing percentage for Apple to be 34 percent, but it's yet to be officially confirmed nor denied.

Atlantic City casino's revenue reaches its worst gain this year. There is more than half cut since 9 years ago in 2006. The closing of many casinos in Atlantic City has caused 10,000 unemployments. A big plan is prepared by Governor Christie. It is said that Atlantic City will be taken over, but still no details are given.

The mortgage processing software company Ellie Mae Inc., showed a better-than-expected result on the company's third-quarter financial report, beating expectations. Ellie Mae's revenue jumped 61% to $68.9 million, beating the analysts expectations of 46% growth. The company's shares rose by 5.84% in the past week and 8.13% for the last 4 weeks.

Microsoft, a software giant has started to see their new strategy focus is paying off, as they announced their latest quarterly result, last Thursday. Strategy shifting on cloud computing and mobile business has started to deliver a positive result.