A City University (CityU) professor has been sentenced to 4½ months in prison for offering a HK$1,000 (US$128) bribe to a Hong Kong property agent, after a magistrate dismissed the defendant’s claims that the situation arose from “cultural differences”. Du Du, 48, an associate professor at the university’s economics and finance department, was granted bail on Wednesday to appeal against his convic...
A City University (CityU) professor has been sentenced to 4½ months in prison for offering a HK$1,000 (US$128) bribe to a Hong Kong property agent, after a magistrate dismissed the defendant’s claims that the situation arose from “cultural differences”. Du Du, 48, an associate professor at the university’s economics and finance department, was granted bail on Wednesday to appeal against his conviction for offering an advantage to the agent in an attempt to avoid paying HK$16,000 for breaching a...
OpenAI is appointing Kiran Mani, the CEO of Indian streaming platform JioStar, in a newly created role to lead its Asia-Pacific operations, Bloomberg News reported. Mani will be appointed to the role of managing director for the region in June and relocate to the company's Singapore office. He will report to Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, the report added . Mani has previously worked at Alphab...
OpenAI is appointing Kiran Mani, the CEO of Indian streaming platform JioStar, in a newly created role to lead its Asia-Pacific operations, Bloomberg News reported. Mani will be appointed to the role of managing director for the region in June and relocate to the company's Singapore office. He will report to Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon, the report added . Mani has previously worked at Alphabet's ( GOOG ) ( GOOGL ) Google, Microsoft ( MSFT ), and IBM ( IBM ), according to his LinkedIn profile , in marketing and other roles. JioStar is a joint venture between India's Reliance Industries and Walt Disney. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha. Earlier this week, it was reported that OpenAI hired one of Meta Platforms' ( META ) former top digital advertising executives, David Dugan, to serve as its vice president of global ad solutions. The ChatGPT maker is raising an additional $10B from investors as part of its historic funding round. Meanwhile, the company is planning to discontinue offering its AI-powered short video generation app Sora. Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI is reportedly offering private-equity firms a better deal than competitor Anthropic ( ANTHRO ) as the two companies vie for firms to form joint ventures aimed at raising new capital and boosting adoption of enterprise AI products. More on OpenAI Nadella's Flip-Flop OpenAI's Dilemma Wall Street Lunch: ChatGPT Tops 800M Weekly Active Users OpenAI secures more funding, lifting record round to $120B, CFO says OpenAI plans to discontinue its video generation app Sora
Getty Images Investors may still be underestimating First Watch ( FWRG ). My original buy call doesn’t look so good now. First Watch’s guidance was weaker than I expected. It looks like 2026 will be a tough year for restaurants. This modern diner might have to raise prices later this year even though it’s been trying to limit price hikes. But I think the long-term investment thesis for First Watch...
Getty Images Investors may still be underestimating First Watch ( FWRG ). My original buy call doesn’t look so good now. First Watch’s guidance was weaker than I expected. It looks like 2026 will be a tough year for restaurants. This modern diner might have to raise prices later this year even though it’s been trying to limit price hikes. But I think the long-term investment thesis for First Watch is still intact. This modern diner could still replace the old diners and eventually become a national diner chain. It’s still planning to build lots of new restaurants. I also think its current 2026 guidance is achievable. And based on that guidance, it looks undervalued right now. First Watch ended the year with strong overall growth. It reported 20.2% revenue growth in Q4 2025 . But it also reported -1.9% traffic. One of the reasons why I said First Watch was a buy last time was because its traffic rose in the third quarter, so that’s not a good sign. Maybe its strong Q3 results were an outlier after all. While First Watch still posted 3.1% same-store sales growth for the quarter, that’s because it raised its prices last year. Higher prices also helped First Watch strengthen its margins. The most important metric, restaurant-level operating margin, rose 20 basis points to 19% for the quarter. Now, it looks like First Watch might also report negative traffic in 2026. It might not build as many new restaurants in 2026 either. While I think its high P/E could be misleading because of restaurant construction costs, it also has a forward P/E of 63. Investors might overlook First Watch’s high P/E ratio if it can keep growing rapidly. If its growth slows down, its bottom line will become more important. But in 2027, if the economy improves, First Watch could also post stronger comps and build a lot more restaurants. So, the first thing I’d consider is First Watch’s long-term growth potential. First Watch Plans to Have 2,200 Restaurants Eventually In its 2025 10-K , First Watch...