COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

PayPal launches crypto transactionsPayPal Holdings Inc will allow customers in the UK to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies starting this week, the company said yesterday.The roll-out, which marks the first international expansion of PayPal's cryptocurrencies services outside of the United States, could inspire further mainstream adoption of the new asset class.With over 403 million active accounts globally, the San Jose, California-based company is one of the largest mainstream financial companies to offer consumers access to cryptocurrencies.PayPal launched cryptocurrency buying and selling in the United States early this year, later enabling customers to use their digital coin holdings to shop at the millions of merchants on its network.The company hoped its foray into the new asset class would encourage global use of virtual coins and prepare its network for new digital currencies that may be developed by corporations and central banks.In the UK, PayPal's service will rival that of established cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase Global Inc, as well as well fintech startups such as Revolut. -Nampa/ReutersWoolworths, Uber Eats join handsWoolworths Group, Australia's biggest supermarket chain, said it is teaming up with Uber Eats for same-hour grocery deliveries to meet the unprecedented demand centred around speed and convenience amid the pandemic.Woolworths' locations will be available on the Uber Eats app from the last week of August for account holders based in Sydney and Melbourne before expanding across the eastern seaboard in the following weeks, the supermarket chain said.Consumer demand for home delivery has grown throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and risen even further during stringent lockdowns, the ride-share service's Eats platform said.Uber Eats will also become a delivery option for customers ordering through the Woolworths website, with Uber providing delivery solutions to the supermarket chain's existing online retail operations, Woolworths said. -Nampa/ReutersEquity firms circling SainsburyPrivate equity companies are circling British supermarket group Sainsbury's with a view to possibly launching bids of more than 7 billion pounds (US$9.53 billion), The Sunday Times reported.American buyout giant Apollo is said to be running the rule over the supermarket group, the newspaper reported.It remains in talks to join the Fortress-led consortium bidding for Morrisons and any involvement in that deal may preclude a move for Sainsbury's, the report said, adding Apollo's interest in Sainsbury's is exploratory.British supermarket group Morrisons said on Thursday its board would unanimously recommend US private equity group CD&R's 285 pence a share offer worth 7 billion pounds and drop its previous recommendation for a 6.7-billion-pound bid from a consortium led by SoftBank owned Fortress. -Nampa/ReutersCitadel plans to redeem millionsKenneth Griffin's Citadel LLC and Citadel partners are planning to redeem about US$500 million of the US$2 billion they invested in Melvin Capital, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.Together with Steven A. Cohen's Point72 Asset Management, Griffin's Citadel had invested US$2.75 billion in January into Melvin Capital, the hedge fund which was at the centre of the GameStop trading frenzy earlier this year.According to the WSJ, it could not determine whether Citadel plans to redeem more money later. Citadel is expected to remain a large investor, the report added, citing a person familiar with the matter.Melvin Capital, the fund founded by Gabe Plotkin, lost 49% on its investments during the first three months of 2021, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters in April. But Plotkin had bet the retailer GameStop's stock price would tumble and then faced off with retail traders who used online trading apps and exchanged information on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum to push the stock price significantly higher in the early weeks of January. -Nampa/ReutersTesla to launch humanoid robot Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk said the electric automaker will probably launch a "Tesla Bot" humanoid robot prototype next year, designed for dangerous, repetitive, or boring work that people don't like to do.Speaking at Tesla's AI Day event, the billionaire entrepreneur said the robot, which stands around five foot eight inches tall, would be able to handle jobs from attaching bolts to cars with a wrench, or picking up groceries at stores.The robot would have "profound implications for the economy," Musk said, addressing a labour shortage. He said it was important to make the machine not "super-expensive."The AI Day event came amid growing scrutiny over the safety and capability of Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" advanced driver assistant system.Musk didn't comment on that scrutiny over the safety of Tesla technology but said that he was confident of achieving full self-driving with higher safety than humans using current in-car cameras and computers. -Nampa/Reuters

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