■ Automakers
Man sues over hot seat
A paraplegic man who suffered burns when the heated seat of his SUV malfunctioned is suing Daimler Chrysler Corp for US$14.1 million. Matt Beller, of Klamath Falls, Oregon, who filed the suit this week in US District Court in Eugene, said he was in his 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee when the temperature of the driver's seat climbed to more than 65 degrees Celsius last Feb. 20. Beller says he has no feeling below his chest because of military injuries and said he did not know he had been burned until the next day. He underwent skin graft surgery and had to lie on his stomach for three months, he said. Beller seeks US$10 million punitive damages, up to US$3 million for non-economic damages and up to US$1,150,000 for economic damages for past and future medical expenses.
■ Entertainment
MGM approves Sony deal
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shareholders voted overwhelmingly on Friday to approve the film studio's sale to a Sony Corp-led consortium that includes cable television giant Comcast Corp. At a brief meeting in Century City, 99.8 percent of shares were voted in favor of the sale, company officials said after the vote. The sale, valued at nearly US$5 billion, is expected to close some time in the first half of next year, contingent on approval by regulatory agencies. Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian had already backed the deal, which is expected to net him about US$2.1 billion. At the meeting, MGM CEO Alex Yemenidjian stressed that MGM will continue to be based in Los Angeles, with Sony Pictures co-producing and distributing MGM's films. Comcast will also establish new cable television channels carrying Sony and MGM content.
■ Airlines
HK pilots mull labor action
Pilots at Hong Kong's Dragon Airlines Ltd have threatened to launch a "work-to-rules" labor action ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in February because of a dispute over scheduling practices, a newspaper reported yesterday. The action means the pilots will refuse to work beyond the terms of their contracts, the South China Morning Post reported. A spokesman for the Dragonair Pilots' Association, whose name was not given, said they expected the action "will have an effect" on the busy schedule of the airline in the run-up to the holiday, the Post said. Dragonair spokeswoman Floran Lee said the company has not been informed about the pilots' planned action and could not confirm the report.
■ Oil
Fourth bidder enters auction
Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said on Friday that a fourth bidder would be participating in today's auction of the embattled Yukos oil company's giant Siberian production unit. Pavel Melnikov, a spokesman for the antitrust agency, said that Baikalfinansgroup would also be participating in the auction for Yuganskneftegaz. First Venture Company and Interkom had earlier registered bids along with Gazpromneft, the fledgling oil division of natural gas giant Gazprom, which is widely expected to snap up the unit for close to its US$8.6 billion starting price. Yukos has disputed that starting price and promised to sue any buyer of Yuganskneftegaz. It is unclear who exactly the other three companies represent,, though many analysts have suggested that they could merely be running to ensure the auction has a number of participants, as required by law.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day