Siemens tops GE for Iraq power deal
Iraq approved a plan to develop power stations in the country with help from Siemens AG, which has been vying with General Electric Co. to win a deal worth as much as $15 billion.
The Cabinet picked Munich-based Siemens, Europe's biggest engineering company, as a partner in the plan to develop electricity projects, according to a government statement that gave no further details.
The Iraqi order is crucial to both Siemens and GE as it would prop up either company's ailing power-generation businesses. The race between them led to a flurry of activity by Germany and the U.S. on behalf of the respective companies. Boosting power output is also an urgent priority for Iraq, where sporadic power failures and unpredictable supplies of electricity have hobbled the economy ever since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
"We are obviously aware of the latest media reports from Iraq and we stand committed to implementing our road map for the re-electrification of Iraq," Siemens said in a statement. "So far, no concrete contracts have been signed to execute the scope outlined in the road map."
In October, U.S. officials said that intervention by President Donald Trump's administration successfully quashed an agreement for Siemens to develop the power generators and instead persuaded Baghdad to sign an accord with GE. But Iraq's government then said the two companies were on equal footing.
About month later, Siemens Chief Executive Officer Joe Kaeser criticized apparent U.S. political pressure on Iraq to sign the deal as skewing competition.
-- Bloomberg News
Tesla finished-goods inventory over $2B
The value of Tesla Inc.'s finished goods inventory, which includes vehicles available for sale, exceeded $2 billion for the first time as the Model 3 sedan began overseas deliveries.
The $2.15 billion in finished goods inventory Tesla carried as of the end of March was up 36% from the end of last year and up 91% from a year ago. In a regulatory filing, the company attributed the increase to the longer time it takes to deliver Model 3s outside North America.
Tesla's filing Monday and a letter to shareholders last week also have offered details on why Model S and X deliveries dropped off in the first quarter. The company said there was a mismatch between the variants that were ordered and the types of models it manufactured, and the imbalance was caused in part by its price adjustments in the quarter.
The carmaker also has blamed seasonality, demand being pulled ahead into the end of 2018 before a U.S. tax incentive shrank, and its move to discontinue the entry-level battery versions of the two vehicles.
-- Bloomberg News
Subscribers at 100 million, Spotify says
COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Music streaming service Spotify said Monday that its paying subscribers have reached 100 million for the first time, up 32% on the year and almost twice the latest figures for Apple Music.
The Stockholm-based company called the figure, which was reached during the first three months of 2019, "an important milestone."
The growth was driven, among other things, by "a better-than-planned promotion in the U.S. and Canada." Spotify said it had reached "the high end of our guidance range of 97-100 million."
By comparison, rival Apple Music had about 50 million paying subscribers at the end of 2018, the latest available figures. Apple is expected to release new figures with its earnings report today.
The number of Spotify's total monthly users, which includes those who do not pay a monthly subscription fee but use the service with intermittent ads, rose to 217 million in the first quarter.
The strong growth in its user base led to a 33% rise in revenue, to $1.7 billion. Yet like many tech companies focusing on building market share, the company continued to lose money, reporting an operating loss of 47 million euros, or about $53 million.
Spotify says that voice speakers such as Google Home and Alexa are a "critical area of growth" and it is looking to invest more in podcasts to supplement its offering of music.
-- The Associated Press
Plant-based Whopper sales to expand
After a successful test run in St. Louis, Burger King announced Monday that the chain will introduce its Impossible Whopper to more cities this summer, with the goal of adding the popular plant-based burger to menus across the country by the end of the year.
The news should thrill those who tied up phones at the chain's outlets in the Gateway City, trying to have the mock-meat Whopper shipped to California and other locales across the United States. But it will probably unnerve small, mom-and-pop restaurants that have struggled to get their hands on Impossible Foods' meat-alternative patties since Burger King launched its new burger this month.
At the Ted's Bulletin chain, with five locations around the Washington, D.C., region, the Impossible Burger is the fifth-most-popular sandwich on the menu, said Nick Salis, vice president of operations. The chain sells about 250 a week, he said. But since its Burger King debut, "we've been seeing shortages," Salis said.
-- The Washington Post
Marriott adding to home-sharing unit
Marriott International Inc. is expanding its home-sharing business to the U.S., becoming the latest hotel operator to challenge Airbnb at its own game and blurring the distinction between home-sharing and the traditional hospitality companies.
Marriott, the world's largest hotel company, plans to expand the home-sharing pilot it launched in Europe last year to the U.S., adding 2,000 home rentals in vacation destinations. The initiative is small -- the company has 1.3 million hotel rooms around the world -- but important for Marriott.
"For younger generations booking group travel, it's not who's in charge of the hotel? It's who's in charge of the Airbnb?" said Michael Bellisario, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. "Home-sharing is here to stay. The best thing hotel companies can do is embrace it."
Established lodging companies have increasingly sought a response to Airbnb as the app-driven home-sharing service has grown from scrappy upstart to a global giant whose private market valuation of $31 billion, bigger than most publicly traded hotel companies. In addition to Marriott, Hyatt Hotels Corp. made a strategic investment in home-sharing startup Oasis Collections in 2017, a year after Accor SA's 2016 acquisition of luxury-rental company Onefinestay.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 04/30/2019