THE NEWS WRAP: TPG announces jump in profits

Internet and telecommunications giant TPG has announced a 15% year-on-year increase in net profits to $90.1 million for the six months to January.

The company now expects its full-year revenues to rise as high as $330 million, or $355 million when the contribution from AAPT is added to the result.

TPG also reported it had 707,000 broadband and 370,000 mobile subscribers as of the end of January.

Google slashes cloud prices by between 30 and 85%

Google has announced price cuts to a number of its cloud computing products, with the discounts ranging from 30% to 85%, in a bid to grab market share from rivals such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.

Google’s cloud storage will cost just 2.6 cents per gigabyte after the cuts, a 68% discount for most customers, while its Computer Engine service prices will be cut by 32% across all sizes, regions and classes.

The move comes as Amazon plans to host an event later this week, while rival Cisco announced a $1 billion investment in cloud infrastructure as part of a partnership with Telstra.

Premier reports half-year profit rise, despite intensifying competition

Diversified specialty retailer Premier Investments group has reported a 12% year-on-year jump in half-year profits to $52.1 million.

The company reported strong growth at its Peter Alexander, Smiggle, Dotti, Portmans, Jacqui E and Just Jeans chains, along with a turnaround for struggling brand Jay Jays.

Sales from continuing operations grew by 4.4%, while overall sales increased by 5.3% to $468.4 million.

“We were pleased to open our first Smiggle UK store at Stratford last month and we expect to have a further eight to 10 new stores operating in the UK by July 2014,” chairman Solomon Lew says.

“We also expanded our Peter Alexander network with five new stores and commenced our concession store operations in Myer in February.”

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up to 16367.9. The US dollar is up to US91.66 cents.