Company news in brief

Google faces employee petition

More than 1 600 workers at Alphabet Inc are petitioning its Google unit to stop selling email and other services to police departments.

The workers in a petition seen by Reuters expressed disappointment with Google not joining the "millions who want to defang and defund" police departments.

Civil rights activists across the United States for years have called for scaling back traditional policing, and the efforts have gained momentum through protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last month.

"We should not be in the business of profiting from racist policing," the Google petition said. It cited sales of the company's G Suite package, which includes tools for email, document editing and file storage, to the police department in Clarkstown, New York.

A Google spokesperson told Reuters in response, "We have longstanding terms of use for generally available computing platforms like Gmail, g suite and google cloud platform, and these products will remain available for governments and local authorities, including police departments, to use. – Nampa/Reuters

NASA to develop program for private missions

Billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc said it has signed up with NASA to develop a program to promote private missions to the International Space Station, sending the shares of the company up about 10%.

As part of its agreement with the Johnson Space Centre, the space tourism company will identify entities keen to buy private missions and develop training packages, as well as aid in transportation, on-orbit and ground resources.

The company competes with billionaire-backed ventures such as Amazon.com Inc's Blue Origin that are vying to usher in a new era of space tourism, racing to be the first to offer sub-orbital flights to civilian space travellers.

This is the second agreement between Virgin Galactic and the US space agency. In May, the two sides entered an agreement to develop 'high-Mach' aircraft for potential civilian use.

The space agency is leaning heavily on private companies built around shared visions for space exploration, as it gears up for a long-term presence on the moon and prepares for a manned mission to Mars. – Nampa/Reuters

Nokia to cut jobs

Finnish telecoms equipment maker Nokia plans to cut 1 233 jobs at its French subsidiary Alcatel-Lucent International, equivalent to a third of the unit's workforce, the group said, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

The announcement, just as Europe prepares for the deployment of the next generation of mobile internet, or 5G, has political resonance in France because Nokia bought the unit five years ago on condition it would keep jobs.

Nokia, which competes with Ericsson and Huawei for 5G networks, said in a statement the staff reduction was needed because of significant cost pressures.

Nokia said in April it aimed to cut costs by US$560.30 million by the end of this year compared with full-year 2018, with 350 million euros targeted to come from operating expenses and 150 million from sales costs.

When Nokia bought Alcatel-Lucent International, it pledged to preserve jobs in France for two years and to expand research and development teams in the country to create a resource within the group for 5G technology. - Nampa/Reuters

Telkom suspends dividends

South African telecoms provider Telkom suspended dividends for three years, aiming to conserve cash after a 66% slump in full-year earnings and ahead of this year's planned auction of radio frequencies.

Telkom is undergoing a restructuring of its business as it grapples with declining performance in fixed-line voice services and a shift in demand to mobile data and fibre networks.

"The imminent spectrum auction will require a substantial amount of capital and it is of strategic importance for Telkom to participate to ensure the sustainability of the mobile business," it said in its full-year results statement.

Telkom declared a dividend of 50.08 cents per share for the year to March 31, but said its next three annual pay-outs would be suspended. The operator of South Africa's biggest fixed-line network also withdrew its medium-term targets, citing exceptional economic weakness and heightened uncertainty.

Telkom aims to build 1 000 new mobile telecoms towers in the next three years, with 600 sites in the new-build pipeline, it said. -Nampa/Reuters

Apple to update developers

Apple Inc will hold its annual conference for software developers, rolling out new features in its operating systems for iPhones and iPads and possibly signalling a departure from Intel Corp's almost 15-year run supplying Mac computer processors.

Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference comes as paid services sold through the App Store have become central to the Cupertino, California, company's revenue growth as consumers have slowed the growth of iPhone upgrades.

Apple takes a 15% to 30% cut of the sales developers make through the App Store, which is the only way to distribute software onto Apple's mobile devices.

Those fees, and Apple's strict app review process, have come under antitrust scrutiny in the United States and Europe, where regulators last week unveiled a formal probe into the company.

The annual developer conference, being held online this year for the first time because of the novel coronavirus, is where Apple often announces access to new hardware capabilities, such as special tools for artificial intelligence and augmented reality. – Nampa/Reuters