Qualcomm Investing in Indian Startups

Technology pioneer Qualcomm has announced it will invest up to $150m though Qualcomm Ventures to support India based startups focused on AI in areas like robotics, automotive, IoT and mobile.

First Brands Collapse Rattles Debt Investors

The auto parts supplier First Brands, known through its brands like STP oil (whose name stands for Scientifically Treated Petroleum), Prestone antifreeze and Simoniz car waxes, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, disclosing liabilities on 29 Sept 2025 exceeding $10 billion.  

This has come in the wake of creditors concern on the use of opaque off-balance-sheet financing (by keeping certain assets and liabilities off balance sheet, healthier financial metrics can be obtained).

First Brands are likely to disclose an issue with its factoring arrangements, factoring being a financing method tied to the future revenue of the company. The companies Board and creditors are investigating the issue.

Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO), an asset-rich American asset management firm, due to publish Q3 results on November 4th, had a 1 year CDS on the debt of First Brands, paying out in the event of failure to make payments. This is a credit play, not an equity short per se, and only pays if First Brands suffers on its debt payments. The fact APO has maintained that position has been a signal to the market.

Greek-American investment manager Jim Chanos (short-seller of Enron - made money, short seller of Tesla - lost money) has slammed the "magical machine" of private credit in response.

Nissan and Honda in Merger Talks

The potential tie-up between Honda and Nissan is aimed at taking on Chinese rivals like BYD who are increasingly dominating the EV car market.

Auto-Ethernet Extravaganza - NXP Swallows OmniPHY

The world's largest supplier of automotive chips, NXP Semiconductors, has announced its acquisition of OmniPHY, a networking IP startup, for better bandwidth on its Ethernet solutions, for an undisclosed sum. This will complement NXP's existing products based on standards like CAN, LIN and FlexRay.

OmniPHY has been a regular on the conference trail showcasing its Automotive IP solutions and support for cars becoming "Servers on Wheels". The suffix PHY comes from the IEEE shortform for a physical layer communication protocol.

Alexander Tan is NXP's Vice President of Automotive Ethernet Solutions since May 2017, based in San Jose, California, and has Ethernet experience from Fairfield County-founded National Semiconductor (now acquired by Texas Instruments) and other firms.

CAN standard (Controller Area Network) is a vehicle bus standard that allows microcontrollers to communicate, via a message-based protocol, in applications without a host computer. Development on the CAN bus started in 1983 at Bosch, with the first chips produced by Intel and Philips. The first production vehicle to employ this technology was the Mercedes-Benz W140 in 1991.

LIN (Local Interconnect Network) is a cheaper to implement version of CAN. It was created in the 1990s by the LIN Consortium founded by five automakers (BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz).

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Shell posts highest ever annual profits for a European company, Ford posts worst loss in its History, Hedge Funds Unleash Recessionary Innovation

Oil giant Shell posted a Q4 loss (the first quarterly loss for 10 years) with oil prices falling to a record low.

NEVERTHELESS, annual profits reached a RECORD level up 14% from $27.6 to $31.4bn. Shell warned conditions remained "challenging". CEO Jeroen Van der Veer,born in Utrecht, boosted dividend by 11%. He said the company would continue "competitive and progressive dividend payouts". Oil is trading below $50 after a record high in mid July 2008 of $147.

China Premier's Wen Jiabao's comments at Davos, that the country had been hit hard by the world financial crisis, raised concerns on falling demand for oil. he also commented that financial regulators had failed to keep pace with "financial innovation" thus facilitating the credit crisis.

Offsetting Shell profits, Ford posted a full year loss for 2008 of $14.6bn, the worst ever performance in its 105 year history (FMC was incorporated in 1903). US rivals GM and and Chrysler have received billions in emergency bailout funding from the US government.

Ford pioneered the moving assembly line, allowing workers to stay in one place and do the same task repeatedly.

Meanwhile, hedge funds fight back with "recessionary innovation" to entice investors "sitting on the sides" in this recession. Osmium Capital Management, a hedge fund based in Bermuda, with $178m worth of assets under management, is launching a new class of shares denominated in troy ounces as opposed to euros, dollars or sterling. The fund hedges its exposure to gold by selling gold for cash and buying gold forward on a monthly basis.