■ Retail
Wal-Mart executive resigns
A high-profile Wal-Mart Stores Inc board member resigned on Friday after an internal probe turned up evidence of financial improprieties of up to US$500,000. Three Wal-Mart employees, including a company officer, also lost their jobs. The world's largest retailer said it asked Thomas Coughlin, who is also a former president and CEO of the company's stores division, to step down because of "a disagreement" over the results of the probe, which involves between US$100,000 and US$500,000, and his "response to questions concerning his knowledge of certain transactions," according to a regulatory filing.
■ Entertainment
New CEO stirs up Disney
Nearly two weeks after being named Disney's new chief executive, Robert Iger has made his first significant move to change the way decisions are made at the media conglomerate. The Walt Disney Co said on Friday it is restructuring its corporate Strategic Planning unit to give each of the company's businesses more authority to make acquisitions and start new ventures. Peter Murphy, Disney's chief strategic officer, will leave that role and become a senior adviser to Iger, the company said. Iger, who will take over from Michael Eisner in October, has said he wants to foster a more entrepreneurial atmosphere at the company while holding the heads of Disney's film studio, media networks, consumer products and theme parks divisions more accountable.
■ Electronics
ATI profits rise 20% in Q2
ATI Technologies Inc, the world's No. 2 computer-graphics chipmaker, said second-quarter profit rose 20 percent as computer and cell-phone makers used more of its chips that display games and pictures. Net income advanced to US$57.2 million, or US$0.22 a share, from US$47.6 million, or US$0.19, a year earlier. Sales in the quarter ended Feb. 28 rose 31 percent to US$608.2 million, the Markham, Ontario-based company said in a statement. Profit rose as sales of higher-margin chips for televisions and mobile phones increased 41 percent, Chief Financial Officer Patrick Crowley said in an interview. Semiconductors for personal computers, which make up the rest of ATI's business, gained 13 percent to US$550 million, he said. The consumer unit's rapid growth is expected to slow this quarter and resume in the fourth period.
■ Macroeconomics
Japan's retail prices fall
Consumer prices in Japan fell 0.4 percent last month from the same month a year earlier, their steepest drop since June 2003 and the latest sign that the country remains mired in a nearly seven-year battle with deflation. Steep declines in telephone rates and a fall in the price of rice drove overall prices lower in February, according to Japan's statistics bureau. Japanese consumer prices have been flat or have fallen every month but one since April 1998, an unprecedented streak that has sapped some of the country's economic strength. Friday's new drop in prices made it unlikely that the Bank of Japan would abandon its ultra-easy monetary policy. For nearly four years, the central bank has been trying to kindle growth and a bit of inflation by keeping short-term interest rates near zero and pumping cash into the money markets. The central bank has pledged to maintain this policy until there are convincing signs that prices are headed higher.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
Clambering hand-over-hand, sweat dripping into his eyes, a durian laborer expertly slices a cumbersome fruit from a tree before tossing it down to land with a soft thump in his colleague’s waiting arms about 15m below. Among Thailand’s most famous and lucrative exports, the pungent “king of fruits” is as distinctive in its smell as its spiky green-brown carapace, and has been farmed in the kingdom for hundreds of years. However, a vicious heat wave engulfing Southeast Asia has resulted in smaller yields and spiraling costs, with growers and sellers increasingly panicked as global warming damages the industry. “This year is a crisis,”
HIGH-TECH: As leading-edge process technologies become more complicated, only a handful of players are able to provide design services, the company’s CEO said Artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) yesterday said that revenue would grow significantly again in 2026 after adding a major AI chip customer, reversing moderation amid a product transition next year. The Taipei-based application-specific IC (ASIC) designer reiterated its strong revenue growth forecast for this year and 2026 after its stock plummeted about 23 percent to NT$3,145 from a peak of NT$4,085 on March 6 amid growing competition. Alchip said it has built strong partnerships with cloud service providers (CSP), denying that it had lost orders to smaller competitors such as Faraday Technology Corp (智原). Faraday said it has secured