■ 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.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the