Lionel Richie cancels European tour shows due to COVID

February 3, 2022 | 12:03 am

LONDON — US singer Lionel Richie said on Tuesday he was canceling his upcoming European summer tour concerts due to the ongoing spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“As COVID and its variants continue to impact the world, I have decided to hold off on my European tour this summer. The most important thing to me is the health of my fans, band and crew,” the “Hello” and “Dancing on the Ceiling” hitmaker said on his Twitter page.

“I hope you all understand and I hope to see you very soon when we can all gather safely.”

Among the performances canceled was Richie’’ appearance at the Isle of Wight Festival in Britain in June.

The 72-year-old is scheduled to perform in Las Vegas and New Orleans over the coming weeks, according to his website. — Reuters

PBA to reinforce depleted Gilas

February 3, 2022 | 12:03 am

By Olmin Leyba

THE PBA is up to the task of sending reinforcements to the Gilas Pilipinas squad that returning coach Chot Reyes is forming for the coming International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup Asian Qualifiers (ACQ) window.

Mr. Reyes has inherited a depleted Gilas pool hit by the unavailability of mainstays playing overseas and asked the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) permission to tap stalwarts from his mother club, TnT, for the Feb. 24-28 window set at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Commissioner Willie Marcial, met with Mr. Reyes on Wednesday to discuss his immediate plans, he told The STAR.

Mr. Marcial said he would bring the Gilas mentor’s request to the board of governors for final approval in a special meeting in the next few days.

With this development, the PBA will now be scheduling the Governors’ Cup, which is slated to resume on Feb. 11, in such a way it makes room for the Tropang Giga’s FIBA endeavor.

Meanwhile, Governors’ Cup action will likely continue while TNT-powered Gilas is playing Korea, New Zealand and India in the opening window.

Mr. Reyes returned to the Gilas post only this week and found only eight players in the original pool of former coach Tab Baldwin are available for the fast-approaching games.

“Short-term plan is to put a team together, find a way to assemble a team that can at least be competitive in three weeks’ time,” Mr. Reyes said in The Game on One Sports. “Then we revisit the plans for 2023.”

Reissued T-bonds fully awarded at higher rate on Fed hike fears

February 3, 2022 | 12:03 am

THE GOVERNMENT made a full award of Treasury bonds (T-bonds) it auctioned off on Wednesday even as the average yield went up on concerns over the US Federal Reserve’s planned rate hikes.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) borrowed P35 billion as planned via the reissued five-year securities it auctioned off on Wednesday as total tenders reached P60.66 billion, making the offer more than 1.5 times oversubscribed.

The debt papers, which have a remaining life of four years and two months, were awarded at an average rate of 4.089%, up by 7.7 basis points (bps) from the 4.012% quoted during the previous successful offer on Jan. 11.

The average yield fetched for the debt papers was also higher than the 3.7848% quoted for the four-year tenor, the closest benchmark to the remaining life of the reissued papers, at the secondary market prior to the auction, based on the PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference Rates published on the Philippine Dealing System’s website.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon in a Viber message to reporters said the T-bond’s average rate remained within secondary market levels despite the hawkish tone from the US Federal Reserve.

The market expects “cooling inflation and continued supportive monetary stance,” she said.

Meanwhile, a bond trader said the yield fetched for the reissued T-bond was within market expectations even as it was higher than the last dealt level of 4.05% on Wednesday morning.

“It was expected though as market wants higher yield as a reaction to FOMC’s (Federal Open Market Committee) hawkish comments.”

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell last week said the central bank may raise interest rates starting in March, although the pace of later rate hikes is yet to be decided, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, a BusinessWorld poll of 16 analysts last week yielded a median estimate of 3% for January inflation.

If that projection is realized, this would be the second consecutive month that inflation fell within the 2-4% target band set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. This would also be lower than the 3.6% in December.

The BTr plans to raise P200 billion from the domestic market this month, or P60 billion via Treasury bills and P140 billion from T-bonds.

The government borrows from local and external sources to help fund a budget deficit capped at 7.7% of gross domestic product this year. — J.P. Ibañez with Reuters

Mapúa, Malayan Colleges open digital college

February 3, 2022 | 12:03 am

MAPÚA University and its subsidiary Malayan Colleges Laguna announced on Wednesday that their newly established digital college will begin operations in the upcoming school year 2022-2023, with the goal of making education “accessible, affordable, and flexible.”

The technology and business-focused Mapúa Malayan Digital College (MMDC) is a new college “under the Malayan Colleges Laguna,” said Dodjie S. Maestrecampo, president of Malayan Colleges Laguna and Malayan Colleges Mindanao, during a virtual briefing.

“We will now have six colleges under the Malayan Colleges Laguna, so this is the sixth college,” he added. This means that MMDC graduates will get their diplomas from the Malayan Colleges Laguna.

The new college will offer “affordable” digital-first education through a combination of online and offline experiences “designed for the modern Filipino student,” the MMDC said in an e-mailed statement.

Derrick Latreille, chief learning officer of MMDC and co-founder of Ayala Education, said: “We’ve determined critical factors for students and parents when deciding to choose a college: the reputation of the school, close proximity to their homes, affordability, and an experience that will help them get the career they want.”

“Mapúa Malayan Digital College will be fulfilling all these through its unique student experience,” he added.

Citing the findings of its own study, MMDC said available courses, tuition fees, and school reputation rank highest in terms of students’ priorities in choosing a college.

“While students are becoming more open to the combination of online and face-to-face learning, they still continue to value community and opportunities for socialization,” it also noted.

MMDC’s information technology curriculum covers data analytics, software development, network, and cybersecurity.

Specializations in the business administration major include marketing management, operations management, and human resource management.

There will also be “learning hubs” for student collaboration.

“MMDC will provide modern collaboration spaces where students can meet, do focused work, collaborate on group projects, organize clubs, and more,” the college said.

Its first two learning hubs will be located at Ayala Malls Cloverleaf in Quezon City and Ayala Malls Capitol Central in Bacolod City.

The college also said its required class meeting times clock in at approximately 7.5 hours a week of synchronous learning, made available with both early and late day schedules.

“This gives students more control of their time and allows them to balance academics, hobbies, family life, and social life. This setup also allows flexibility for the working adult who wants to complete their college degree,” it added.

It is offering a pioneer scholarship in which the first 750 enrolled students will receive a tuition fee discount of up to P20,000. With this partial discount, a full year’s enrollment can be as low as P58,000. Slot reservation begins on March 1, 2022. — Arjay L. Balinbin

Couchbase sees opportunities in PHL online gaming, BPOs

February 3, 2022 | 12:03 am

By Arjay L. Balinbin, Senior Reporter

COUCHBASE, INC., a technology company based in the United States, is targeting opportunities in various sectors in the Philippines, especially in online gaming and business process outsourcing (BPO), a company official said.

“Impressive growth in online gaming and business process outsourcing, as well as other sectors like banking and financial services, remote support, IT (information technology) development, and retail, combined with an increased adoption of cloud, big data, and IoT (internet of things), make the Philippines a lucrative market,” Couchbase Regional Vice-President for Asia Pacific and Japan Stuart Fisher told BusinessWorld in a recent e-mail interview.

Couchbase is a modern cloud-native database for enterprise applications. It enables developers and architects to build, deploy, and run mission-critical applications.

“As we move into the cloud-as-a-service ecosystem, or economy, a big part of the engine room is being driven out of the Philippines, in areas such as core development, application design, and delivery of services. All of these areas are going to be fundamentally based on next-generation technologies and capabilities driven by the cloud,” Mr. Fisher said.

He also noted that gamification has taken a huge leap in the Philippines.

“The mobile games segment’s growth trajectory is expected to continue over the next five years, with forecast revenues reaching as much as $1.52 billion by 2025,” he said, citing data from market and consumer data provider Statista.

“With such a big slice of the pie, developers need to react quickly. To do that, they need to thrive in the open-source community, in which our technologies are well suited and positioned to support digitalization strategies and enable growth,” he added.

The Philippines is a global leader in BPO, where companies are rapidly migrating to the cloud as a result of the remote working setup and the use of data and analytics to better understand customers.

BPO is the largest private sector employer in the country, accounting for 10% to 15% of the global market, according to data analytics and consulting company GlobalData. “It has grown at a compound annual rate of 10% over the past decade.”

On what surprises Couchbase has in store for its clients in the Philippines, Mr. Stuart said the company hopes the “versatility” of its solutions will support organizations to scale up in their current environment at any point in time, minus the financial burden of re-development, reworking or modernization initiatives.

“Our database-as-a-service solution delivers exceptional capabilities, flexibility, and cost savings, while assuring excellent performance and faster times to market.”

Nirvana urges ‘strike three’ for Nevermind baby’s lawsuit

February 3, 2022 | 12:02 am

NIRVANA has urged a US judge to dismiss for good the lawsuit by the man claiming that his depiction as a naked four-month-old baby on its 1991 album Nevermind was child pornography.

In a filing in Los Angeles federal court, the band said Spencer Elden waited too long to claim it sexually exploited him, dooming the third and latest version of his complaint.

“While there is no serious question that the photograph is not ‘child pornography,’ Elden’s case is long barred by the statute of limitations,” the band’s lawyers wrote. “For Elden, this is strike three. This case must end.”

A lawyer for Mr. Elden did not immediately respond on Tuesday to requests for comment.

The Nevermind album cover depicted Mr. Elden swimming naked toward a dollar bill pierced with a fish hook. Mr. Elden has said the photo caused him “lifelong damages” while letting Nirvana reap tens of millions of dollars at his expense.

Nevermind, which features the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” had album sales topping 30 million.

Mr. Elden’s latest complaint included details he hoped would show he filed the Aug. 2021 lawsuit within the federal 10-year statute of limitations.

But Nirvana’s lawyers said Mr. Elden did not identify any “new victimization … which he reasonably discovered for the first time after Aug. 2011 to re-start the clock.”

They quoted from a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone magazine in which Mr. Elden, then 12, said: “Every five years or so, somebody’s gonna call me up and ask me about Nevermind … and I’m probably gonna get some money from it.”

The defendants include Nirvana band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, late lead singer Kurt Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, several record labels and the photographer, Kirk Weddle.

A hearing before US District Judge Fernando Olguin is scheduled for Feb. 24. — Reuters

Athletes can resume training — Fernandez

February 3, 2022 | 12:02 am

RizalMemorialStadiumjf9846_01RFVelasquez — RIZAL Memorial Sports Complex — RAMON F VELASQUEZ

WITH the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases subsiding and National Capital Region protocol level relaxing, national athletes preparing for the 31^st Hanoi Southeast Asian (SEA) Games set on May 12-23 can now enter and resume training at the PhilSports Complex in Pasig and Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila.

“They can come in anytime they are ready, “Philippine SEA Games chef de mission Ramon Fernandez on Wednesday told The STAR.

The resumption of training of the national team was originally scheduled last month but the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) was forced to delay it because of the spike of COVID-19 cases to avoid more spread.

Good thing, the situation has improved since then.

“We will still implement strict protocols,” said the PSC commissioner.

The PhilSports Complex can accommodate about eight sports while the RMSC can host 10-12 disciplines.

Same with the Teacher’s Camp in Baguio, which can house over a hundred pool members.

Mr. Fernandez said there were other sports that already started their respective bubble camps in the provinces like sepak takraw in Malolos, Bulacan, fencing and modern pentathlon in Ormoc, and triathlon and duathlon in Clark and Subic among others.

There were some sports like boxing and karate that have entered early to train in Baguio.

Apart from the Hanoi Games, the country is also preparing for the Hangzhou Asian Games slated for Sept. 10-25. — Joey Villar

RCBC offers green time deposits

February 3, 2022 | 12:02 am

RIZAL Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) will offer green time deposits, with the proceeds to be used to fund the bank’s sustainable asset portfolio.

The first to be offered in the country, RCBC’s green time deposits have a minimum investment of P5,000, the bank said in a statement.

“Through this product, individual investors or even private corporations have a more accessible vehicle to participate and contribute to a sustainable future,” RCBC Retail Banking Group Head Richard C. Lim said.

Clients can invest up to P5 million in the bank’s green time deposit, which has a term option of 30 days, 45 days, 60 days, 90 days, 180 days, and one year.

Depositors’ funds will be used solely to support the bank’s asset portfolio, which includes funding for projects on renewable energy, pollution prevention and control, energy efficiency, sustainable water management, and clean transportation.

“We developed this product for an unserved segment in the market whose objectives would dovetail with our green and social goals under the bank’s sustainable finance framework,” RCBC Treasurer Horacio E. Cebrero, III said.

Sustainable financial products in the country before RCBC’s latest offering have only been in the form of loans and bonds.

On Monday, the bank also started offering ASEAN sustainability bonds. RCBC is hoping to raise at least P3 billion from the transaction which will be used for general funding purposes that are in line with the bank’s sustainable finance framework.

RCBC said it is committed to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of its portfolio as part of its responsibility in being a participant of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials starting 2021. It is the first local lender that joined the initiative.

In 2020, RCBC became the first local bank to turn its back on coal-fired power projects.

The Yuchengco-led lender’s net profit more than doubled to P2.01 billion in the third quarter of 2021, backed by higher interest earnings and trading income.

This brought RCBC’s net earnings as of September to P5.338 billion, increasing by a third from the P4 billion booked in the same period of 2020.

The bank’s shares closed at P20.95 apiece on Wednesday, up by 55 centavos or by 2.7% from its previous finish. — Luz Wendy T. Noble

Tanduay Distillers aims to expand Luzon market share, increase prices

February 3, 2022 | 12:02 am

TANDUAY Distillers, Inc. (TDI) is looking to grow its business by expanding its less than 1% market share in Luzon and by increasing prices this year.

“We’re really seeing that the room to grow is to be at more volumes at Luzon. We are also more aggressive now in increasing selling prices,” TDI Chief Financial Officer Nestor C. Mendones told the ABS-CBN News Channel’s Market Edge on Wednesday.

The company plans to increase product prices by about 12% in 2022.

“The price increase would be around an average of 12% for this year. We already started the increase in December, so by now the consumers would have adjusted to it already,” Mr. Mendones said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Mendones said the company aims to improve on its below 1% market share in Luzon, which is a far cry from its majority share in the Visayas-Mindanao (Vis-Min) region “that may even grow.”

“For 2022, we are optimistic that we’ll be able to surpass volumes for 2021 and we are taking an aggressive stance on getting more volumes out of Luzon, so right now we are the dominant brand in Vis-Min, cornering about 73% of the market,” Mr. Mendones said.

TDI’s 2021 volumes inched down by 200,000 in 2021 from its 23.9 million cases logged in 2020. The company hopes to secure a volume of at least a million cases in Luzon this year.

“We are not expecting significant strides, but a million cases in Luzon would be an achievement for us already considering the tight hold of gin and brandy in Luzon, as well as the imported drinks like brandy and whisky,” Mr. Mendones said.

“We are hopeful that with the coming in of our new products that we have launched last year, we would get more volumes,” he added.

Meanwhile, TDI is also rolling out its products abroad. The company is planning to boost its presence in the US by adding five more states to its current 12, on top of its planned expansion in Europe and its eventual rollout in Canada. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte

Xiaomi announces new phones, air purifiers

February 3, 2022 | 12:02 am

Redmi_Note_11_Series_01.0 — REDMI NOTE 11 SERIES

XIAOMI last week announced the Redmi Note 11 series’ availability in international markets with four new devices.

The four devices are the Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G, Redmi Note 11 Pro, Redmi Note 11S and Redmi Note 11, Xiaomi said in a press release.

“Rising to the challenge to bring even stronger specs and features, Redmi Note 11 series again brings powerful upgrades to its camera system, charging speed, display, and SoC — making flagship-level smartphone performance more accessible than before,” it said.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G, Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11S feature 108MP primary sensors. The main camera has a Samsung HM2 sensor with a large 1/1.52” size with 9-in-1 pixel binning technology as well as dual native ISO. They likewise feature a 8MP ultra-wide angle camera and a 2MP macro camera.

“Additionally, the 2MP depth camera on Redmi Note 11 Pro, Redmi Note 11S and Redmi Note 11 allows you to create a natural bokeh effect for your portrait shots. The front of Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G, Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11S feature a 16MP front camera that can capture clear, natural-looking selfies,” Xiaomi added.

The Redmi Note 11 series have a refresh rate up to 120Hz and a touch sampling rate up to 360Hz and screen sizes of 6.67-inch and 6.43-inch.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G has the octa-core processor Snapdragon 695, while the Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11S have an octa-core MediaTek Helio G96 processor and up to 8GB of RAM. Redmi Note 11 is equipped with a Snapdragon 680 processor.

All four Redmi Note 11 series devices have a 5,000mAh large-capacity battery and allow fast charging.

The Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G, Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11S come in three variants: 6GB+64GB, 6GB+128GB and 8GB+128GB, while Redmi Note 11 comes in three variants: 4GB+64GB, 4GB+128GB and 6GB+128GB.

The phones will be available in the country by Feb. 11.

AIR PURIFIERS
Meanwhile, Xiaomi also introduced upgrades to its Xiaomi Smart Air Purifier Series — the Xiaomi Smart Air Purifier 4 Pro, 4, and 4 Lite.

“The brand-new series promises Xiaomi Fans a healthier, cleaner, and reduced-allergen indoor air environment year-round, with options for different home spaces and family needs,” Xiaomi said.

Xiaomi Smart Air Purifier 4 Pro has a 3-in-1 filtration system that combines electrostatic charge and mechanical technologies to trap 99.97% of air pollutants as small as 0.3 microns. It has both PM2.5 and PM10 sensors and an ionizer. It also offers 500m3/h PCADR and 185m3/h FCADR, which means it can filter the air of a 40m2 living room entirely every 15 minutes.

The model also has a low-noise running mode as well as an OLED touch display. The device can be controlled remotely via the Xiaomi Home app.

The Xiaomi Smart Air Purifier 4 Pro is priced at P11,999, while the 4 and 4 Lite cost P8,999 and P6,999 respectively.

They will be available via Xiaomi’s Lazada flagship store starting Feb. 11. — BVR

Nike/Louis Vuitton sneakers by Abloh beating auction estimates

February 3, 2022 | 12:01 am

sothebys-com.brightspotcdn — THE LOUIS VUITTON AND NIKE ‘AIR FORCE 1’ BY VIRGIL ABLOH — SOTHEBYS.COM/

NEW YORK — Bids for 200 pairs of Nike/Louis Vuitton “Air Force 1” sneakers designed by Virgil Abloh are running well beyond Sotheby’s initial estimates in an auction with a week to go. The sale, which the Louis Vuitton creative designer helped to plan before his death from cancer at age 41 in November, will benefit The Virgil Abloh “Post-Modern” Scholarship Fund for Black, African-American and students of African descent in the fashion industry.

“We’re currently at around $6.1 million in hammer price,” said Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles, Brahm Wachter, on Tuesday, when bids ran as high as $80,000.

The original total estimate was $1 million to $3 million for the Jan. 26 to Feb. 8 auction. On opening day, the number of bids broke Sotheby’s record for online sales.

The leather sneaker features Mr. Abloh’s signature quotation marks and Louis Vuitton’s emblematic patterns. Each comes with a limited-edition orange pilot case.

“On a size 5, there’s just one pair and a size 18, again, there’s just one pair. When you get to a size 10 or a size 8, there are more,” Mr. Wachter said.

The sneakers were the first official collaboration between Nike and Louis Vuitton.

“It’s really bringing together two of the great Goliaths of industry. And of course, the genius of Virgil Abloh, who so many people love and respect and miss,” Mr. Wachter said.

“Bringing all three of these worlds together is really an incredible thing, which I think is driving global interest.”

Mr. Abloh, one of the highest profile Black designers, had been the creative mind behind Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection since 2018. In July 2021, LVMH mandated him to launch new brands and partner with existing ones in non-fashion sectors such as furniture and luggage. — Reuters

Google shakes off Omicron with shopping ads, cloud revenue

February 3, 2022 | 12:01 am

GOOGLE parent Alphabet, Inc. posted fourth-quarter sales and profit that topped analysts’ projections, showing the resilience of its advertising business in the face of major economic upheaval as the pandemic persists. The shares soared in late trading.

Sales, excluding partner payouts, rose 33% to $61.9 billion, compared with the $59.4-billion average analyst estimate. Google’s advertising revenue also grew by 33% during the holiday quarter, despite the disruptions to its biggest categories, travel and retail, from the spread of the Omicron coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) variant and supply chain crunches. The company also declared a 20-for-1 stock split.

Alphabet has continued to profit from the major trends that emerged during the pandemic, as people increasingly turned to online shopping and as marketing and business software budgets shifted to the internet. Google posted robust gains for two critical divisions, cloud and YouTube. But the company’s main contributor was its flagship search business, which is seeing gains from a deep investment in e-commerce.

“The scale of its combined advertising businesses cannot be overstated,” Sophie Lund-Yates, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, wrote in a note after earnings. “If you own a business in today’s world, chances are you will need to pay to get that marketing material in front of Google or YouTube’s users.”

Shares surged 8.7% in extended trading, after closing at $2,752.88. The stock has declined about 5% so far this year.

Since the start of the pandemic, Google has made up for declining in-person retail by luring more merchants to sell items on its shopping service and run product ads on search. Even during the holiday quarter, when Omicron cases spiked, consumers continued to rely on online shopping and travel services, clicking on those ads.

“More budgets are now coming back,” Andrew Boone, an analyst at JMP Securities, said after the release. “Google is benefiting from that trend.” Competing digital advertising businesses, including Meta Platforms, Inc. and Snap, Inc., rose after the results.

Retail ads were the biggest contributor to Google’s growth, chief business officer Philipp Schindler told investors on the call. During the fourth quarter, YouTube launched a new shopping initiative with some of its young star creators.

“We continue to make inroads in unlocking TV brand budgets,” Schindler said on the call.

Net income climbed to $20.6 billion, or $30.69 a share, compared to the $27.35 per-share estimate, Alphabet said Tuesday in a statement.

Google managed to beat analyst estimates in nearly every business unit, including search ads, cloud computing and its grab-bag “other” line that includes hardware and app store sales. Google’s Network business, which runs ads on other websites, grew 26% to $9.31 billion, despite increased regulatory pressure on the display ads operations.

The YouTube video site is also benefiting from people staying home and scrolling as opposed to going out. Its newer Shorts feature, the competitor to TikTok, now has 15 billion daily views.

YouTube raked in $8.63 billion during the holiday quarter, a gain of 25% but just shy of the $8.76 billion analysts were expecting on average. Of all Google’s divisions, YouTube is the most exposed to changes Apple Inc. has made to limit targeting on iPhones.

In their third-quarter report, Google executives said YouTube had seen a “modest impact” on revenue from Apple’s move to limit ad targeting on iPhones. Compared with rivals like Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook and Snapchat parent Snap Inc., Google is less reliant on third-party trackers Apple has banned. In a research note before earnings, analyst Mark Mahaney of Evercore ISI wrote that “Google has likely been a beneficiary” of Apple’s restrictions.

In recent years, Google has directed a hefty portion of its investment and new personnel to its cloud division, which lags behind Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in selling computing power and storage to corporations. Google’s cloud unit generated $5.54 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, when it picked up some key customers such as CME Group. Analysts were anticipating $5.42 billion.

Alphabet also continued to invest heavily in nascent businesses, including Waymo, the self-driving car unit, and Verily, which aims to solve various health issues with technology. Those units, known as Other Bets, collectively lost $1.45 billion for the recent quarter.

Traffic acquisition costs — the funds Google pays out to publishers and device makers like Apple Inc., a figure investors monitor closely — rose 28% in the quarter.

Google still has money to spend, with cash and equivalents of $139.6 billion as of year’s end. But the company is the target of a mounting number of lawsuits and regulatory threats, sparking some concern about how that scrutiny may limit its ability to expand.

A trio of states have brought recent privacy cases against the company, adding to antitrust suits in Texas and its home state of California, and a federal antitrust suit brought by the US Justice Department. Congress has also introduced a suite of bills that could force Google to curb some of the data-collection practices that power its ads business.

“There are areas where we are genuinely concerned that they could break a wide range of popular services we offer to our users,” Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told investors on a conference call. “We’ve urged Congress to take time to consider the unintended consequences.”

The stock split will take the form of a one-time special stock dividend, the Mountain View, California-based company said Tuesday in a regulatory filing. Alphabet said it will give $0.001 for each share of the company’s Class A stock, Class B stock and Class C stock.

“The reason for the split is it makes our shares more accessible,” Ruth Porat, Alphabet’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call with television anchors.

The split could be a move on Alphabet’s path toward inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, one of the most commonly quoted indexes that holds 30 blue-chip companies. It might also ease the path to a $2 trillion market value. Alphabet is close, at $1.82 trillion. — Bloomberg