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· Posted on
February 21, 2024

Today's Flux Feed

Get smarter than your boss in 3 minutes with today's business news.

What's the key learning?

🧠 Foxtel will launch a smart TV...in 2023

🍦 Amazon might be secretly working on a smart fridge

💰 Ireland ups its corporate tax rate to 15%

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Here's everything you need to know today - in under 3 minutes.

Today's big stories:

🧠 Foxtel will launch a smart TV...in 2023

🍦 Amazon might be secretly working on a smart fridge

💰 Ireland ups its corporate tax rate to 15%

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Foxtel's circling back with a new smart TV...in 2023

Background: Foxtel is the ol' Aussie pay TV company that started around 25 years ago. Its set top box subscriber-base has been dwindling over the years...now down to around 1.7 million.

What happened: You could say Foxtel has been on a personal journey. Ya know, eat, pray, get with the times. Over the last few years, they've expanded into the streaming world with Kayo and Binge...and soon, Flash.

What else: Now, they've inked a deal with Sky TV to launch a new smart TV. Sky TV created a smart TV (how many times can we say TV) called Sky Glass, and Foxtel's going to be its first global syndication partner.

So what's the key learning?

💡To put this into corporate speak, Foxtel is going full circle. Back in the day, Foxtel was known as just an entertainment aggregator. You purchase the box, spend 10 years installing it, and then you have access to all of their content.

💡But they began to face challenges when streaming platforms like Netflix and Disney+ entered the building. So Foxtel introduced its own streaming channels to stay competitive.

💡Suddenly, Foxtel wasn't a one-stop-shop anymore. Different services lived in different places. But with a smart TV, Foxtel can re-aggregate its entertainment into the one spot. Back to the future.

Throw out ya ol' milk before Alexa does it for you with the new Amazon smart fridge

Background: Amazon's been at the forefront of technology since its inception back in 1994. It was one of the pioneers of the online marketplace, it's got its own streaming service, and it led the way in virtual assistant tech with Alexa.  

What happened: Now, the company is reportedly working to bring us a smart fridge. It won't make the fridges...but it will leverage its existing tech for some interesting features.

What else: Amazon's tech could monitor the items in your fridge, and help you order replacements if you're running low on anything. It could also offer recipe suggestions (cya Hello Fresh). And, Alexa could be the voice telling you to stop drinking that 3-week-old rosé.

So what's the key learning?

💡Amazon is creeping its way into our homes one groovy gadget at a time.

💡The company entered the at-home marketplace years ago, but it's been ramping up its smart devices rapidly over the last year. We've had the home robot who can follow you around, Astro, and we've had Amazon's first branded TV.

💡The obsession with getting into our houses comes back to data. If Amazon knows what we need and want, it can enhance its customer experience, and target us with the right products and services exactly when we need them.

Find a new place to stash your cash Google, Ireland's just not what it used to be

Background: Ireland is the home of Guinness, St Patty's day and of course, the European headquarters of some massive tech companies like Google, Facebook, Airbnb and Paypal (and more).

What happened: While it doesn't seem like the obvious choice to plonk a tech company's headquarters, Ireland has lured in big companies with a sneaky tactic: 12.5% corporate tax rates. To put that into perspective, large companies pay 30% tax in Australia.

What else: 130 countries (including Ireland) are going to bump their tax rate to 15% as part of a global minimum tax agreement. The aim is to limit the high levels of transfer pricing and shifting of profits.

So what's the key learning?

💡Transfer pricing allows companies to move profits from high-tax jurisdictions to low-tax jurisdictions. And pretty much all the cool kids have been doing it.

💡Tech companies transfer a large portion of their profits from high-tax countries (*ahem* Australia) to low-tax havens like Ireland. And this comes at the expense of the high-tax countries.

💡Netflix paid around $550,000 in tax in Australia last year, despite estimates that it generated over $1 billion in revenue. Apple paid $498 million in taxable income on $9.6 billion in total revenue.

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