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Mobile games developer Huuuge stock leaps on buyback plans

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Mobile games developer Huuuge stock leaps on buyback plans

Mobile games developer Huuuge Inc (HUGP.WA) plans to launch an up to $150 million share buyback this quarter following a review of strategic options, it said late on Wednesday, sending the stock sharply higher at the market opening.

US-registered Huuuge, which debuted in Warsaw in 2021, launched the review of strategic options in August and shortly afterwards suspended an earlier buyback.

It said could still postpone or cancel the new buyback depending on market conditions and the company’s circumstances. The stock jumped 8% by 0816 GMT on Thursday, hitting its highest price in over a year.

Huuuge said in a statement it had concluded its “optimal strategy at this time” was to remain a publicly-listed company and that continued focus on the current strategy was in the best interests of the company and its stock-holders.

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It added it was working on a plan to improve its overall performance and productivity “by flattening hierarchies, merging teams where appropriate and refocusing on agility”.

Piotr Bogusz from Erste Group wrote in a note to clients the absence of “an offer to purchase shares from an outside investor could be somewhat of a disappointment to the investors”.

But he said the market was likely to welcome the buyback and estimated a price per share in the range of 29-30 zlotys, implying a 22-26% premium to the last close.

Huuuge has yet to disclose price details of the buyback.

Last week, the maker of Huuuge Casino and Billionaire Casino games reported preliminary core profit up 28% to $82 million following lower marketing spend.

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Amazon’s AWS appeals to corporate customers with new chatbot, AI safety measures

Amazon’s AWS appeals to corporate customers with new chatbot, AI safety measures

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Amazon's AWS appeals to corporate customers with new chatbot, AI safety measures

Amazon (AMZN.O) is trying to lure big corporate customers to it AWS cloud computing service with a new chatbot for businesses, and by offering to guard them against legal and reputational damage that can come from the output of artificial intelligence.

The new chatbot, called Q, is designed to help with productivity by helping workers summarize important documents and support tickets and chat via communication apps such as Slack, the company announced at its annual cloud computing conference Tuesday in Las Vegas. The software can also automatically make changes to businesses source code, speeding development, the company said.

The new software arrives roughly a year after OpenAI’s ChatGPT burst onto the scene, setting off a frenzy of investment in generative AI startups. Alphabet (GOOGL.O) and others have announced their own chatbots, which can have human-like conversations with users to help with daily tasks.

AWS CEO Adam Selipsky, at Amazon’s annual cloud computing conference in Las Vegas, announced a new safeguard against objectionable content on generative AI applications, called Guardrails for Bedrock. The service allows users to filter out harmful content, he said.

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Because generative AI is trained on publicly available content, offensive words or other objectionable content can slip through into results from users’ prompts. That is particularly problematic for younger users, in times of global conflict or during elections when generative AI’s output in search results can influence opinion.

Safety advocates have cautioned that generative AI could operate out of the control of its human creators and pump out increasingly dangerous content or operate entire systems without oversight. In particular, they worry about the software putting influential – and convincing – content on social media sites like X and Facebook (META.O).

Selipsky said the new service was important for customers to put limits they see fit on the generative AI they use.

“For example, a bank could configure an online assistant to refrain from providing investment advice,” said Selipsky. “Or, to prevent inappropriate content, an e-commerce site could ensure that its online assistant doesn’t use hate speech or insults.”

As part of its appeal to corporations, Amazon said the Q chatbot will offer businesses limits so that it can keep sensitive data from employees who should not have access to it. Pricing will start at $20 per user, per year.

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Also at the conference, Amazon announced it would indemnify its customers against lawsuits based on the misuse of copyrighted materials. Stock photography company Getty Images, for instance, sued Stability AI earlier this year, alleging it scraped its website for images without permission.

Guardrails for Bedrock is in limited preview today, Amazon said. The Seattle company did not provide additional details about its indemnification policy. 

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TikTok obtaining Indonesia e-commerce permit

TikTok obtaining Indonesia e-commerce permit

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TikTok obtaining Indonesia e-commerce permit

Short video app TikTok is in the process of obtaining an e-commerce permit from Indonesia’s government, state news agency Antara reported, citing the deputy trade minister.

In September, Indonesia banned e-commerce transactions on social media, a major blow for TikTok, which had pledged to invest billions of dollars in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, the region’s biggest economy.

“Before, they (TikTok) were not compliant, they didn’t have the permit. Now they are taking care of it,” deputy trade minister Jerry Sambuaga was quoted saying by Antara on Tuesday.

He said a partnership with a local firm could be done providing it was in accordance with regulations.

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TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, has 125 million active monthly users in Indonesia, a country of more than 270 million people. It has been looking to translate the large user base into a major e-commerce revenue source.

TikTok did not immediately respond to request for comment regarding the deputy minister’s remarks.

Reuters reported earlier this month that TikTok was in talks on possible partnerships with several Indonesian e-commerce companies, including GoTo’s e-commerce unit (GOTO.JK) Tokopedia, Bukalapak.com (BUKA.JK) and Blibli (BELI.JK). 

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Japan space agency hit with cyberattack, rocket and satellite info not accessed

Japan space agency hit with cyberattack, rocket and satellite info not accessed

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Japan space agency hit with cyberattack, rocket and satellite info not accessed

Japan’s space agency was hit with a cyberattack but the information the hackers accessed did not include anything important for rocket and satellite operations, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“There was a possibility of unauthorised access by exploiting the vulnerability of network equipment,” the spokesperson at Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said, declining to elaborate on details such as when the attack took place.

The space agency learned of the possibility of the unauthorised access after receiving information from an external organisation and conducting an internal investigation, the spokesperson said, declining to identify the organisation’s name.

The investigation is ongoing, the spokesperson said.

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Japanese media reported Wednesday that the cyberattack occurred during the summer and the police became aware of the attack and notified JAXA this autumn. The Yomiuri newspaper first reported the incident. 

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