The brightest light in Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) quarterly earnings report came from sales of its iPhone 4S, whose most defining feature is the voice recognition assistant Siri. The phone's eye popping growth, particularly in Asia where it launched in January, was likely behind Nuance's (NASDAQ:NUAN) upside guidance issued on April 26th. Of course, consumer sales to OEMs like Apple still account for less revenue than Nuance's healthcare division, which is riding a wave higher in medical transcription. But, voice driven consumer electronics are increasingly important to Nuance's growth story. Following the launch of the 4S last fall, phones at Nuance were likely lit up by manufacturers looking to close the gap with Apple. In Nuance's Q4 earnings call, CEO Paul Ricci described interest in its solutions as "unprecedented".

The owner of Truck Gear SuperCenter, a Houston-based truck-accessory retailer, Towry, 62, once served as CEO of Leer, a $400-million-a-year manufacturer of truck accessories. "I'm very seasoned at managing a business," he says. And he appeared to be doing a good job at Truck Gear since he started the company in 2001. Revenue rose 25% to $2.5 million in 2004, while profits climbed 32%. When he learned about ProfitCents, a web-based accounting software program, he tried it mainly out of curiosity.

NEW DELHI: Artificial intelligence (AI) will play fundamental role in the success of an organisation's strategy but stringent ethical standards are also needed to ensure the success of the new technology, a report by Infosys today said. The report said organisations that have already deployed or have plans to deploy AI technologies expect to see a 39 per cent increase on an average in their revenues by 2020, alongside a 37 per cent reduction in costs. Also, companies in India and China are much more likely to state that they are ahead of industry competitors when it comes to AI use, followed by Germany, the US, the UK, France, it added. About 76 per cent respondents cited AI as fundamental to the success of their organisation's strategy, and 64 per cent said future growth of the company is dependent on large-scale AI adoption. The report also highlighted the ethical and job related concerns with 62 per cent respondents saying stringent ethical standards are needed to ensure the success of AI. "However, most respondents seem optimistic about redeploying displaced employees with higher value work. The majority, 85 per cent, plan to train employees about the benefits and use of AI," the report said.

Microsoft Corp. is buying into Canada's artificial intelligence research community with a deal to purchase Maluuba, a deep-learning and AI– technology startup based in Waterloo, Ont., and Montreal. The company, founded in 2011 by two University of Waterloo grads, focuses on teaching machines to read like a human brain – a massive computer science challenge that has bedevilled researchers for decades. Early on, the company also developed language-recognition software for voice assistants in smartphones and cars. The company raised $9-million in venture funding in January, 2016, but neither company released details Friday about the sale price. "Microsoft representatives met with Maluuba employees earlier today in both Waterloo and Montreal. We are currently working on integration plans and expect most, if not all, employees will join Microsoft."

Microsoft announced this morning that it has acquired Maluuba, a Toronto startup focused on using deep learning for natural language processing. Deep learning is an approach to artificial intelligence currently in vogue that has driven incredible gains in the field over the last five years. As Microsoft wrote in the blog post announcing the purchase, "We've recently set new milestones for speech and image recognition using deep learning techniques, and with this acquisition we are, as Wayne Gretzky would say, skating to where the puck will be next -- machine reading and writing." The Verge covered Maluuba in the summer of 2016, when the startup shared the results of an AI system that could read and comprehend text with near human capability, outperforming similar systems shown off by Google and Facebook. Along with acquiring the company, Microsoft has also established closer ties with Yoshua Bengio, a pioneer in the field of deep learning who served as an advisor to Maluuba, and will now become and advisor to Microsoft's AI division.

Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is set to report results for its fourth quarter of 2016 on Thursday, Jan. 26. Before the numbers for the quarter are released, here's a broad overview of some areas to watch. The pressure is certainly on for Alphabet's fourth quarter, especially after the company's expectation-beating quarter before it. For Alphabet's third quarter, both the company's revenue and earnings per share (EPS) exceeded expectations. Revenue and non-GAAP (non-generally accepted accounting principles) EPS was $22.5 billion and $9.06, respectively, up significantly from $18.7 billion and $7.35, respectively, in the year-ago quarter.

It was a disappointing holiday season for French drone maker Parrot. The company announced Monday that it will lay off about 290 employees -- or more than a third of the employees currently working on drone-related projects -- after it missed fourth quarter sales targets by about 15 percent. Parrot's drone line has always straddled the line between executive toys and high-end gadgetry, and according to the company's announcement, the first order of business in 2017 will be to refocus its product offerings to concentrate on the most profitable areas. Parrot cites extremely low margins in the consumer drone space as the main reason for the layoffs, so we won't be surprised if we see fewer one-off jumping, flying and seafaring minidrones as the company continues to grow up with more prosumer-level devices like the Bebop 2 or the fixed-wing Disco in the future. As Recode notes, Parrot's main competitor DJI has been dominating the consumer drone space by slashing prices and cutting into profit margins, which it can pull off because it also owns the manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen.

HONG KONG: McDonald's Corp has agreed to sell the bulk of its China and Hong Kong business to state-backed conglomerate CITIC Ltd and Carlyle Group LP for up to $2.1 billion (Dh7.71 billion), seeking to expand rapidly without using much of its own capital. Zurich The Swiss National Bank expects a 2016 full-year profit of 24 billion francs (Dh86.68 billion; $23.6 billion), enabling it to shell out money to the federal government and municipalities. Foreign-currency holdings contributed more than 19 billion francs, and valuation gains on its gold holdings added 3.9 billion francs, the central bank said on Monday, citing an initial estimate. Last year's result is set to be the second-best in the Read More ... Tags: Corporate Enterprises Finance Sectors Banks Profits Financial institutions German automaker Volkswagen saw sales jump 16 percent in December for its namesake brand, propelled by a big increase in China, Volkswagen's biggest market. Global sales reported Monday rose to 567,900 from 487,700 despite the damage to the company's reputation from its scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.

Networked Insights, a Chicago-based company whose tools crawl the social web and analyze data for marketers, has raised $30 million in Series E funding, the company announced Friday. The company sifts through 560 million social media posts from 30 million sources daily, it said on its website. It sorts and analyzes that information for marketers and agencies, and pitches itself as a way for them to create better-targeted and more effective campaigns. Its clients include NBC Universal, media-buying agency GroupM, and American Family Insurance, whose venture arm is an investor. The funding will help Networked Insights invest in deep learning and artificial intelligence capabilities on its platform, Kairos, the company said. It said it would also use the infusion to enter partnerships and pursue acquisitions.

Bob, CFO of ABC Inc is about to get on an earnings call after just reporting a 20% miss on earnings due to slower revenue growth than forecasted. Company ABC's stock price is plummeting, down 25% in extended hour trading. The board is furious and investors demand answers on the discrepancies. Inaccurate revenue forecast remains one of the biggest risks for CFOs. In a recent study, more than 50% of companies feel their pipeline forecast is only about 50% accurate.