Also, fund managers slash expectations for ZTE and Soft Space raises a Series B

Sankt-Petersburg, Russia, February 9, 2018: Walmart application icon on Apple iPhone X screen close-up. Walmartapp icon. Walmart.com is multinational retailing corporation

Walmart reportedly close to buying Flipkart for over US$12 billion — [Bloomberg]

The American retail giant, Walmart, is close to inking a deal to buy Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce company and Amazon’s top competitor in the region, for US$12 billion or more, according to Bloomberg.

Walmart has been tied to Flipkart for months and according to the article Walmart could take a 60 to 80 per cent stake. Tiger Global Management and SoftBank are said to be willing to sell their stakes.

Furthermore, it is a major coup for America’s largest retailer because the other option for Flipkart was to sell to Amazon. While Amazon is the global e-commerce leader, Walmart has done a nice job of transitioning to e-commerce and it is still the largest company in the world.

Amazon has invested heavily in India and it has become the company’s most important market outside of the US.

ThoughtWorks hires Thao Dang as Head of Technology for Southeast Asia — [Press Release]

ThoughtWorks, a global technology consultancy firm, has promoted Thao Dang to the role of Head of Technology for Southeast Asia. She has worked at the company for six years and she is now the company’s first woman to hold the position.

The announcement comes at the same time that the company was named the Gold winner in the ‘Best Diversity & Inclusion Strategy’ category at the Asia Recruitment Awards. Essentially this means they were recognised for consistently hiring people from diverse backgrounds.

“We are proud to announce Thao’s appointment as Head of Technology at the same time that we receive this prestigious award. We are committed to fostering diversity and inclusion throughout our organisation every day, and to supporting many more talented individuals as they grow their careers while delivering outstanding client work,” said Jessie Xia, the ThoughtWorks Managing Director for Southeast Asia.

Prior to ThoughtWorks, Dang worked on the tech side at Citigroup.

Soft Space nabs Series B funding round — [e27]

Soft Space, a Kuala Lumpur-headquartered digital payments company, today announced that it has secured an undisclosed amount in Series B investment from Sumitomo Mitsui Card Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

The company develops mobile point-of-sales (mPoS) card readers for the banking and payment industry. With over 20 financial institutions in 11 countries, the company is expanding into omni-channel payments that includes the adoption of Artificial Intelligence, QR code payments, e-wallet systems and digital lending schemes.

ZTE sees its valuation cut by 30 per cent after US market ban — [Reuters]

While politicians and business people alike are decrying the decision from the US to place a seven-year export ban on ZTE phones, fund managers are shifting their expectations for the company, slashing portfolio valuations by 20-30 per cent, according to Reuters.

ZTE halted trading on the stock market after the ban, a move that prompted an official response from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The article reports that about 40 fund managers have adjusted their expectations for ZTE’s stock price. The price of a ZTE stock was closed at US$4.98 and will be worth watching what happens when the stock resumes trading.

Singapore cybersecurity agency says residents improving, but could be better with password/transactions management — [ChannelNewsAsia]

The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, a government department overseeing cybersecurity development and operations in the city-state, said today residents are improving in how they protect themselves online but still have a ways to go, according to Channel NewsAsia.

In 2017, the number of people who went through with a purchase before verifying the legitimacy of the transaction dropped to 20 per cent, according to a survey issued by the agency. That is an 18 per cent drop from 2016.

90 per cent of people downloaded apps from an official app marketplace (Google Play Store or the Apple App Store for example). The 2016 number was 83 per cent.

However, while those stats are positive, the survey revealed poor password management within Singapore. Habits like writing them down, using the same password for everything or not changing them often, were fairly common in the city.

Runcloud.io tastes victory at Startup World Cup Malaysia – [e27]

Runcloud.io — which aims to make it easy deploying, configuring, managing and monitoring cloud servers — won the Malaysian leg of the Startup World Cup and will compete in the global competition in Silicon Valley in early May.

Runcloud was the Judge’s Choice Winner at the Echelon TOP100 competition in early-March in Malaysia.

If Runcloud wins the entire competition, they will receive a US$1 million investment as their reward. Last year, a Japanese IoT company helping people track the health of young children, won the global event.

The event is run by Fenox Capital.

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