■ Telecoms
Ericsson predicts gloom
Ericsson, the world's largest maker of mobile phone networks, posted a quarterly profit on Friday, but reported disappointing new orders and painted a dampened outlook for next year. Ericsson, based in Stockholm, reported net income of 4.8 billion Swedish kronor (US$668 million) for the third quarter, in contrast to a 3.9 billion kronor loss a year ago, though the company has had profits since the final quarter of last year. Net sales were 31.8 billion kronor in the third quarter, up 14 percent from the year before. But figures that give some indication on the future were weak: Ericsson booked 29 billion kronor (US$4 billion) worth of net orders in the third quarter, up 3 percent from a year ago but down 13 percent from the second quarter of this year. Sales growth next year will be minimal, the company's president and chief executive, Carl-Henric Svanberg, said. "We expect the global market for mobile systems to show slight growth in 2005," he said at a news conference.
■ Electronics
Hitachi raises profit forecast
The Japanese electronics company Hitachi raised its forecast for profit in the six-month period that ended Sept. 30, citing strong demand in the US for digital electronics products like flat-panel televisions and DVD players. Hitachi said that it expected to report a profit of about ¥41 billion (US$382 million) for the period, the first half of its fiscal year, up from ¥5.4 billion a year earlier and its previous forecast of ¥25 billion (US$233 million). Hitachi said that it expected to report revenue of ¥4.33 trillion (US$40 billion), an increase of 7 percent. The figures released on Friday were preliminary but are not expected to change much by the time Hitachi announces its earnings next week.
■ Hospitality
Higher bid for pubs concern
The retailer Coles Myer raised its bid for the pub and liquor store operator Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group, topping an offer made on Monday by a rival bidder, Woolworths. Coles Myer said it would pay A$1.32 billion (US$978 million), 7 percent higher than the bid of A$1.23 billion dollars by Woolworths. While the contest has so far been about gaining a greater share of Australia's market for liquor, analysts said the rising bids indicated that the fight had as much to do with corporate ego.
■ Entertainment
HBO inks deal with CCTV
US-based movie service HBO Asia has signed a deal to supply films for a new movie channel run by China's state broadcaster, a news report said yesterday. The subscription-based digital channel run by China Central Television will show three HBO movies a day beginning Jan. 1, Xinhua reported. China Digital Television launched six subscription-based digital channels in August. They include two channels for sports, one each for movies and TV series, and one each for documentaries and music. CCTV also runs more than 10 free-to-air specialty channels showing sports, news, cultural programming and other content. The first group of films shown under the deal with HBO will include Mission Impossible, D-Tox, and Mandy Moore's A Walk to Remember, according to Xinhua. DTV also has signed an agreement to show programming by the US-based National Geographic channel, the report said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to