02/02/2018 Asia Business Report

He'll be sentenced later today.

Now on BBC News all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

Apple, Alibaba, and is on and

alphabet reporting strong news but

will investors give

alphabet reporting strong news but

will investors give them an A+? From

chicken farm to boardroom, the

unusual career path of a tech CEO.

I am Rico Hizon, you will watch it

World Business Report. Good morning

Asia, hello world. Corporate

earnings in America and revenues

have surged a long list of tech

titans. Apple has reported quarter

revenues of 80 $80 billion but

iPhone sales fell short. -- 88.

According to the latest earning

reports Apple is selling fewer

iPhones than it was last year but it

may not be quite as bad as it

sounds. The period it measures in

the 17 was one week shorter than

that in 2016 which may account for

the drop of 1%. Also, because of the

iPhone X, the average selling price

has gone up to nearly $100 so while

they were selling less, they were

making more money on each one. --

$800. Still they did not smash it

out of the park and came in below

Wall Street expectations which is

why investors were a bit unnerved.

While not a huge lot last quarter

for Apple, it is certainly not a

problem for the company going into

the year.

Alibaba also reported its

latest numbers and it continues to

grow bigger and bigger. Alibaba

racing revenue forecasts after sales

jumped 56% to 13 billion US dollars

in the quarter. On top, it is buying

one third of online business.

Despite these fantastic numbers,

stocks are down by 6%?

That is

because investors considered those

figures to be a mixed result.

Focusing on the good parts first,

the sales jump so high and it is to

do with the fact that Alibaba

traditionally does well in this

quarter because of November in

Lavant, a sales day which broke

records. It lifted all revenue

figures. Another strong aspect has

to do with cloud compute in. Alibaba

investment in that business is

paying off. -- computing. They are

also extending further into online

payment.

What about the red flags?

China's e-commerce market is showing

signs of saturation. Alibaba is

still king but they're at Davids

taking on the Goliath. Offshore...

Off-line retail. Particularly in the

area of supermarket.

They might be

stretching themselves to thing. The

main competitor is J.D. .Com. Amis

on is also posting strong results.

-- Amazon. Google's alphabet is

surging past the billion dollar in

revenue on strong online ad business

but reported a $3 billion

third-quarter loss due to a one-time

tax charge. Airbnb does not plan to

go public even though it is a

profitable business. They say they

are working on their timetable.

Airbnb announced several big

management changes. Its chief

financial officer is living and they

have appointed a new seat are over.

Fahmy and will develop and other big

winners in India's budget. The

budget comes against an election in

yet but India is battling an

economic slowdown and so the

government have to balance politics

with economics. Can it impress

voters and investors? As India's

Finance Minister stepped out from

his office, plenty of promise in the

air, in the end, he delivered the

budget many had expected. And within

minutes of him starting his speech,

it became clear what the

government's main priority was...

My

government is committed to the

welfare of the farmers because the

policy has remained production

centric. We are seeking a paradigms

shift.

The government is looking to

improve the lives of the rural

population and the government 's new

scheme would ensure 500 million

families, was perhaps the biggest

announcement of the day, followed

closely by corporate tax cuts for

small business which many would hope

would boost employment.

It was

fought registered companies rather

than this must quantity and

turnover. I think it is pragmatic

and move that will be looked at very

well.

Unfortunately, a corporate tax

reduction shows no evidence that the

government will invest more.

The

government finances are already

stretched and so it will be looking

to sell stakes in public sector

companies and it is also

reintroducing a capital gains tax

for health and education, a move

which will increase the burden on

the. The middle class will also lose

out on the costs of consumer goods

like phones and TVs. They will now

be taxed at a high gear rate, an

effort to boost domestic

manufacturing. Industry experts in

Delhi are not impressed with budget

announcement calling many policies

just token initiatives. The

government is in a difficult spot.

India wants and a percent quote rate

at general elections are due in over

a year. The focus of the budget is a

rural areas, with two thirds of

population living there. The finance

and Prime Minister are hoping a

broader base will be happy at the

very least. The chief executive of

one Seattle's most important

publicly traded tech companies has a

very different story to many

business leaders. He spent most of

his teenage years in the west

African country of Togo before

moving to France. At the time he had

to dream stashed on in the chicken

farm and plan for Paris St Germain.

He never played for PSG but there

was another completely different job

waiting for him.

Sometimes your

first dreams do not pan out but I

started engineering in front and

undertook a career in technology.

Join the communications industry in

the late 90s and ended up joining F5

five months ago.

It is such a big

challenge, running a publicly that a

company in the US. Did you want to

become a XCO?

I did stop the

technology industry attacks talent

from all over the world and all

types of background.

What lessons

did you learn from owning a chicken

farm the dreams of becoming a

footballer to becoming a chief

executive?

There are lots of

similarities. You have to be

tenacious, deal with adversity and

some of the adversity you face in

the chicken farm business.

When you

join you faced a lot of adversities,

disappointing earnings numbers and

you also had to lay off people.

The

company is going through a

transition. We have a phenomenal

opportunity in front of us because

the world is going more digital. The

currency is applications and F5 is

really the only company in making

all the applications go faster,

smarter and safer.

A big sigh of

relief that last week you reported

positive earnings in the last

quarter?

The results are going in

the right direction and we are

pleased with the progress. F5

support a lot of applications in

data centres and we have the

opportunity to support applications

all over and our goal is to support

any application anywhere.

Beyond the

F5, what are your dreams? Do you

want to own your French football

club?

Maybe one day. Right now my

dreams are centred around F5 and

growing the company. We have a great

opportunity in front of us.