Corporate bits | Sands China, MDA hold ‘Silent Afternoon Teas’

Around 100 Sands China Care Ambassadors spent time last week at The Venetian learning about what life is like for the hard of hearing, at an event jointly organized by Sands China Ltd and the Macau Deaf Association (MDA).
Sands China said in a statement that the Care Ambassadors enhanced their understanding of the barriers caused by hearing loss, increased their knowledge of deafness, and learned about communication with the deaf.
During the two silent afternoon teas, the participants put on soundproof headphones and teamed up to help each other order food without speaking in a mock-up restaurant scenario. The event also featured experience sharing of the Ambassadors and MDA members.
Last July, a group of Care Ambassadors also participated in a sign language workshop with the MDA at The Venetian Macao’s Adelson Advanced Education Centre and at MDA’s Service Centre for the Deaf.

Johnson & Johnson tops Q2 forecasts despite profit drop

Johnson & Johnson’s second-quarter profit fell 11.5 percent, mainly due to a sizeable gain a year ago, but it easily beat Wall Street’s expectations. Sales of the health care giant’s newest prescription drugs buoyed revenue and the effects of unfavorable exchange rates, which have been hurting U.S. companies, eased a bit.
The world’s biggest maker of health care products reported net income of USD4 billion, or $1.43 per share. That was down from $4.62 billion, or $1.63 per share, in 2015’s second quarter, when the company had a gain of $931 million, mainly from the sale of pain drug Nucynta.
The company said the strong dollar, which reduces the value of products bought overseas in local currencies, reduced sales by 2.7 percent.

‘Pokemon Go’ doubles Nintendo’s stock price and market cap

For Nintendo, “Pokemon Go” just keeps on giving. Shares in the Japanese game maker closed up 14 percent at 31,700 yen (USD300) in heavy trading yesterday on the Tokyo Stock exchange, more than twice where they stood when the wildly popular augmented-reality game was launched on July 6.
Nintendo accounted for nearly one in four shares that changed hands on the TSE’s main board. The sharp rise has doubled the Kyoto-based company’s market capitalization to 4.5 trillion yen ($42.4 billion).
“Pokemon Go,” a smartphone app that uses Google Maps to overlay reality with Pokemon creatures, was developed by Niantic, a Google spinoff that Nintendo Co. invested in last year. The game has yet to be released in Japan and the rest of Asia.