:00:00. > :00:15.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:16. > :00:26.More troubles for the founder and formal boss of Uber. A lawsuit for
:00:27. > :00:32.fraud. And how much is too much? We break down what expecting parents
:00:33. > :00:36.should be expecting for their newborns.
:00:37. > :00:41.Good morning, Asia. Hello, world. Welcome to another edition of Asia
:00:42. > :00:51.Business Report. It's a Friday. Thank you for joining us. I'm Rico
:00:52. > :00:55.Hizon. We start off with Uber. The former Chief Executive has had a
:00:56. > :01:00.tough few months. He was forced out of his job in June after a series of
:01:01. > :01:07.embarrassments for the company. Now he is being sued by a venture
:01:08. > :01:12.capital firm for fraud. Earlier, I spoke to a North American reporter,
:01:13. > :01:16.Dave Lee, who was at the headquarters in San Francisco.
:01:17. > :01:24.Basically, one of the biggest investors in Uber are suing them
:01:25. > :01:30.because they say he fraudulently added board seats to Uber to fill
:01:31. > :01:37.them with allies of himself. Now we are in a situation where he is the
:01:38. > :01:42.former CEO. He wanted to come back and it is reported he would use the
:01:43. > :01:49.allies to make that possible. Venture Capital say that would have
:01:50. > :01:55.been done fraud at me. -- fraudulent. There were sexual
:01:56. > :01:58.harassment scandals and other things. They said if they did not
:01:59. > :02:05.know about these things they would not have allowed these board seats
:02:06. > :02:10.to be added. It is unprecedented. They own 13% of Uber. It is a
:02:11. > :02:21.powerful voice on the board and they are unhappy. What does the lawsuit
:02:22. > :02:25.need for Travis? -- mean. He could be removed altogether. When he was
:02:26. > :02:30.ousted as CEO in June he did not leave completely. He went on to the
:02:31. > :02:35.board. The seat he took was one of the three seats he added that are
:02:36. > :02:38.now being disputed. If this lawsuit is successful, those three seats
:02:39. > :02:43.would be removed and presumably so would Travis. The company that he
:02:44. > :02:49.was running at the beginning of the year, successfully, he has now been
:02:50. > :02:52.ousted as CEO and could be kicked off the board as well. Dramatic
:02:53. > :03:01.consequences if the lawsuit is successful. Also, Wemo, another
:03:02. > :03:04.company, they are taking Uber to court for stealing cyber technology.
:03:05. > :03:10.They are saying this shows the nature of Travis's stewardship of
:03:11. > :03:15.Uber. They think this adds to their case. That will have implications in
:03:16. > :03:19.their case as well. That was Dave Lee outside the San Francisco Uber
:03:20. > :03:24.headquarters. Staying with Silicon Valley. Snapchat just released its
:03:25. > :03:33.numbers and they were disappointing below unless expectations of. They
:03:34. > :03:39.lost nearly $450 million in the three months until June. That is a
:03:40. > :03:42.lot of money. They say they added 7 million daily users during that
:03:43. > :03:47.period. Slightly lower than the first quarter. The platform seems to
:03:48. > :03:54.have fallen out of favour with investors, the IPO, pricing them at
:03:55. > :04:00.$17 a piece. On the first day of trade the stock hit a record high of
:04:01. > :04:05.nearly $30 a share. But it has been on a slippery slope ever since. Last
:04:06. > :04:16.week the shares hit an all-time low of nearly $13. The meal kit company
:04:17. > :04:20.Blue Apron lost a fifth of its value two months after going public. They
:04:21. > :04:24.say the cost of building a new centre would add to losses this
:04:25. > :04:29.year. They are also being squeezed by stiff competition from Amazon
:04:30. > :04:32.offering a similar service last month. They are joining a growing
:04:33. > :04:39.list of technology start-ups failing to live up to expectations ahead of
:04:40. > :04:45.their share prices. Now to a massive investment by Japan's Telco giant,
:04:46. > :04:55.Softbank, which is on a spending spree. From Uber, Lyft, to Fanatix,
:04:56. > :05:03.they are eager to invest. Late last night it was reported they will find
:05:04. > :05:11.$2.5 billion into India's on line retailer, Flipcart. But if they are
:05:12. > :05:16.going to do that, not all of them are going to be successful. Why are
:05:17. > :05:20.not all of these Japanese investments successful? Some
:05:21. > :05:26.acquisitions are successful, some are not. I want to highlight two
:05:27. > :05:31.cases. First of all, Japan Post. The company went public just over two
:05:32. > :05:35.years ago in what was the biggest share sale in Japan for three
:05:36. > :05:40.decades. The company just reported its latest results after the bell
:05:41. > :05:44.yesterday. While it finally started to make some money, the spotlight is
:05:45. > :05:51.still on this massive write down because of its acquisition of
:05:52. > :05:57.Australia's Tall Holdings. They bought them in February, 2015, just
:05:58. > :06:02.ahead of the IPO, and it paid $6.5 billion for it, but it had to write
:06:03. > :06:06.down 3.5 billion. Yesterday we were telling you about Toshiba which
:06:07. > :06:12.finally reported its results for the last year. But it has lost nearly $9
:06:13. > :06:17.billion last year. And that is mainly because of the disastrous
:06:18. > :06:22.acquisition of US nuclear company, Westinghouse. For that, Toshiba paid
:06:23. > :06:29.nearly five and a half billion dollars. Bennett had to write down
:06:30. > :06:33.more than $6 billion. -- but then. Would you believe it, both of those
:06:34. > :06:39.acquisitions were made by this person, the boss of Toshiba just
:06:40. > :06:44.over a decade ago. He was brought in by the Japanese government to lead
:06:45. > :06:51.Japan Post ahead of the share sale. He has not -- he has stepped down
:06:52. > :06:59.because of health reasons. He has not made any comments. People have
:07:00. > :07:03.been asking why those acquisitions were made without due diligence.
:07:04. > :07:11.Some acquisitions work and some do not. Thank you so much. Marika Oi.
:07:12. > :07:15.And now for the final instalment of the Business of Birth series from
:07:16. > :07:20.this week. Department stores offer baby preparation services around the
:07:21. > :07:26.world to help expecting parents get what they need. You could be
:07:27. > :07:31.spending thousands of dollars. What do you need for a baby starter kit?
:07:32. > :07:36.We went out and about in New York to find out. When we were growing up we
:07:37. > :07:43.never had these. I never even had a car seat. . Shopping for a baby is
:07:44. > :07:47.not what used to be. Call this the stroller pit. Parents would start
:07:48. > :07:56.crying because there are so many options. There are so many choices.
:07:57. > :08:03.Just take strollers. Jamie is an expert on infant gear. There are
:08:04. > :08:11.many cribs. People do reverse investment. They spend more on the
:08:12. > :08:15.crib than the mattress. It started with the Bugaboo stroller. It was a
:08:16. > :08:19.Renaissance to be honest. They came out with a really cool stroller and
:08:20. > :08:23.all the others had to step up their game. That trickled down. In
:08:24. > :08:30.America, women are waiting longer to have children to be by that time,
:08:31. > :08:34.they often have more disposable income and the industry is changing
:08:35. > :08:40.to cater to them. This year, this was the global market for babycare
:08:41. > :08:43.products. $66.8 billion. For all of the cuteness, this is a
:08:44. > :08:48.billion-dollar industry, with baby companies focus on how to get
:08:49. > :09:00.expectant parents to spend more. And the choices can be bewildering. This
:09:01. > :09:08.China's parents know how daunting it can be. -- child's. It is geared
:09:09. > :09:13.towards wealthy parents. It is very expensive. You can get so caught up
:09:14. > :09:17.in it, especially on Instagram, when you look at some of the perfect
:09:18. > :09:22.lives some of these families have. They are always so beautiful and
:09:23. > :09:26.they have wonderful homes and they have the perfect baby items and you
:09:27. > :09:31.feel like you need them. Take the desire for every parents to get the
:09:32. > :09:40.best for their children, add the commercial desire to keep up with
:09:41. > :09:46.the Joneses, and it seems like child play. Join the conversation on line.
:09:47. > :09:54.We are asking how much money you need to spend on a newborn. Use the
:09:55. > :09:59.hashtag, #businessofbirth. The markets. Nearly 30 billion US
:10:00. > :10:06.dollars were wiped off the value of blue-chip stocks overnight as
:10:07. > :10:10.investors remained spooked by the issue with North Korea and America.
:10:11. > :10:17.This is how it ended. The DOW falling. The NASDAQ 135 points down.
:10:18. > :10:22.The biggest one day drop in almost three months. As for Asia, well, as
:10:23. > :10:31.you can see right now on the market screens, following the footsteps of
:10:32. > :10:35.Wall Street, all lower. Thank you so much for investing your time with
:10:36. > :10:39.us. Have a productive Friday, everyone. I am Rico Hizon. Goodbye
:10:40. > :10:42.for now.