Asia Business Moves: Alibaba Sells Lingxi Games, Yen Gains on Rate Hike Bets
Asian businesses made significant moves in response to changing global demand and market conditions. Alibaba is reportedly nearing a deal to sell its video game business Lingxi Games to Trustar Capital for more than $1.5 billion.
The transaction would mark another step in Alibaba's efforts to streamline its business portfolio, focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Lingxi Games is part of Alibaba's gaming and entertainment business.
Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are facing expectations to return significant amounts of cash to shareholders due to strong demand for memory products linked to artificial intelligence. The two South Korean chipmakers have a combined shareholder-return pool of around 250 trillion won, with Samsung potentially paying out about 150 trillion won and SK hynix having around 100 trillion won available.
The Japanese yen strengthened against the U.S. dollar as traders reduced expectations of another U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike. Singapore's non-oil domestic exports jumped 24.2% year on year in July, supported by strong demand for AI-related products.
A Vietnam Airlines Boeing 787 returned to Munich after experiencing a technical issue shortly after takeoff.