S&P Global upgraded Dell Technologies to a BBB from BB+ on its “improved financial profile” after the expected November VMware spinoff, said the ratings service Wednesday. “The stable rating outlook on Dell reflects our expectation it will maintain a conservative financial policy through shareholder returns and potential acquisitions” after the spinoff, said S&P, though it thinks the PC industry “is nearing the peak of the cycle and could turn into a headwind” in Dell’s fiscal year ending late January 2023. Profitability and cash flow in Dell’s core PC segment “could be pressured should PC sales decline more than we currently forecast,” though Dell’s financial performance over the past two quarters “has been better than we had anticipated due mostly to continued PC strength,” it said. S&P thinks Dell will have a sufficient cash “cushion” to weather any “near-term industry downturns,” it said. A further ratings upgrade “is unlikely over the next two years based on our expectation that PC demand may be volatile,” it said. Dell risks a ratings downgrade if its operating performance “is meaningfully worse than expected due to a significant downturn in the PC market,” said S&P. Late August quarterly earnings calls showed Dell faring significantly better than HP in navigating industry supply chain woes and component shortages (see 2108270003).

Cowen began coverage of Sony with an “outperform” rating and a 15,800 yen ($142.36) price target, it said Monday. "We view Sony primarily as a top-tier entertainment company with market leading presences in some of the most attractive entertainment verticals,” like gaming and music, it said. “We think the company unfairly trades at a discount to underlying value due to low-merit concerns about conglomeratization.” The stock closed 0.3% lower Monday on the Tokyo exchange at 12,965 yen. Sony's Gaming & Network Services segment “has been a clear global market leader in video gaming” for more than two decades, said Cowen. The PlayStation 4 finished the last console generation with a larger hardware installed base than any competing platform, and the PS5 “is the early leader in the current generation” that launched in 2020's Q4, it said. Sony's Music segment holds the top share in music publishing and is No. 2 in global recorded music, it said. Sony Pictures is the only major Hollywood-based “film/TV asset” that is not “tethered” to a major streaming service, making it “a film & TV arms merchant to the content-hungry” subscription- and ad-based VOD markets, said Cowen. Sony's core consumer tech segment, Electronic Products & Solutions, “used to be a drag on results but has been significantly rationalized by the company into a consistently profitable business,” it said. It views Sony as “an underappreciated entertainment powerhouse.”

This pandemic brought “this dramatic acceleration of people moving to a digital lifestyle,” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman told a J.P. Morgan investor conference virtually Thursday. How people work, play, pay and consume their entertainment -- “all of that is moving to the mobile phone,” and people “are staying there at elevated levels,” he said. The new smartphone “super app” that PayPal launched days ago, featuring a new two-day “early access” direct deposit component, was a “substantial upgrade to where we were from a consumer perspective,” he said. But it’s only the first “iteration” of an app PayPal plans to improve with each passing quarter, he said. Any company like PayPal that wants to be “a major financial services player” needs to be “world-class at regulatory compliance,” said Schulman. “We operate in 200 different jurisdictions around the world,” under 67 “different regulatory frameworks,” he said. It has “great engaged relationships with all the regulators,” he said. “If there are emerging fintechs who think they can play outside the regulatory boundaries, they're wrong.”

Walmart closed a $2 billion inaugural green bond offering, perviously announced, with funds targeted to current and future sustainability projects, said the retailer Thursday. Its sustainability goals include achieving 100% renewable energy by 2035 and zero emissions in operations by 2040, said Chief Sustainability Officer Kathleen McLaughlin Thursday. Proceeds of the bond offering will be distributed among several categories: infrastructure; energy-efficient buildings; fuel-efficient vehicles in operations and supply chain; waste reduction and prevention; water efficiency and conservation; and habitat and landscape restoration, she said.

Samsung launched its annual Solve for Tomorrow Contest, challenging students in grades 6-12 to use science, technology, engineering and math to address issues of national importance. Public school teachers can apply for the $2 million program, now in its 12th year, through Nov. 8 and submit activity plans that enable students to tackle critical issues using problem-based learning, said the company Friday.

Following similar moves by Walmart (see 2107270053) and Target (see 2108040027) in a tight labor market, Amazon said Thursday it will pay full college tuition for front-line workers. Amazon’s $1.2 billion commitment over five years tops Walmart’s by $200 million. Walmart’s $1 billion five-year program is available to about 1.5 million part- and full-time employees. Target’s free tuition program is $200 million over four years for its 340,000 U.S.-based workers. Amazon will fund full college tuition, along with high school diplomas, general educational development certification and English as a second language proficiency certification for over 750,000 operations employees who have been with the company for at least 90 days, it said. The company will cover the cost of classes, books and fees. Amazon will pay employees’ tuition and fees in advance rather than offering reimbursement after coursework completion, it said. An Amazon-Gallup study found that 70% of American workers would switch to a new job if offered free skills training opportunities.

Apple’s annual September new product event, scheduled for Sept. 14, is expected to include unveilings of iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7 and AirPods 3. The virtual event is slated for 1 p.m. EDT from Apple Park in Cupertino, California. The webcast will be available here and via the Apple TV app, said the company Tuesday.

Bose and Hive are inaugural partners of Agora’s Extensions Marketplace announced this week at the company’s virtual RTE2021 conference. Agora’s platform helps companies embed real-time video and audio features in apps and services. Bose’s PinPoint noise filter reduces unwanted background noise in a conference call, online game or chat app and can be used with any headphones, it said. Hive’s extension offers native integration with its visual content moderation application programming interface, which is able to detect in real time offensive content such as hate symbols, nudity and violence. Other extensions announced this week offer facial animation, voice-changing software, facial recognition, voice effects and conversation intelligence, Agora said.

Kaleidescape is shipping its largest movie server, the 72-terabyte 4K Ultra HD Terra 72 ($23,995), which stores over 1,100 4K movies and can serve up to 10 simultaneous 4K playbacks, said the company Monday. The Terra 72 works with a Strato C movie player. A feature-length 4K movie downloads in 10 minutes on a 1 Gbps connection, said the company. Kaleidescape offers 12,000 titles for purchase and more than 8,000 for rent, including nearly 400 4K UHD titles not available on Blu-ray Disc, it said.

Apple is cutting the commission rate of in-app subscriptions to 15% from 30% under the News Partner Program, it said Thursday. Subscription news organizations previously had to wait a year for the commission to fall to 15%. The program is for subscription news publications that provide their content to Apple News in Apple News Format (ANF), said the company. Publishers’ apps must be available on the App Store and allow users to buy auto-renewable subscriptions through the company's in-app purchase system. To qualify for the 15% commission, the publisher’s app has to be used to deliver “original, professionally authored” news content, it said. ANF supports advertising; publishers keep 100% of the revenue from what they sell within Apple News, it said.