■ Investment
Macquarie deal faces probe
Macquarie Bank Ltd's acquisition of Taiwan Broadband Communications Co (台灣寬頻) faces the scrutiny of the Investment Commission, the Economic Daily News reported, without saying where it got the information. The Investment Commission may rule the deal, which was approved by the Fair Trade Commission last month, exceeds the allowed ceiling on foreign investment in cable television operators, the Taipei-based paper said. Macquarie Bank, Australia's largest investment bank, and its media unit Macquarie Media Group Ltd agreed in December to buy Taiwan Broadband for A$1.19 billion (US$848 million). The Taiwanese company is the nation's third-biggest cable television operator. Taiwan has set a ceiling of 60 percent for combined direct and indirect holdings by foreign funds in a local cable television operator. Sydney-based Macquarie avoided the ceiling in its acquisition by arranging for a local investor to hold preferred stock in Taiwan Broadband.
■ Automakers
Toyota to expand hybrids
Toyota Motor Corp plans to offer hybrid systems in all classes of vehicles by 2012 as it quadruples worldwide sales of gasoline-electric vehicles to 1 million units a year, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. The carmaker aims to lower the extra price consumers pay for a hybrid version of a vehicle to ?300,000 (US$2,500) from the current ?500,000, the paper said, without saying where it got the information. Toyota expects hybrids to make up 10 percent of total new car sales by 2012 from 3 percent last year, the newspaper said. It will introduce a hybrid version of the Crown sedan in 2008 and Vitz subcompact in 2010 or later, the paper said.
■ Plumbing
`Green toilets' spark ire
Philadelphia's plumbers are seeing red about an attempt to install "green toilets" in a new high-rise building, saying their work may dry up. Plumbers Union Local 690 has come out against the installation of waterless urinals in the Comcast Center, a 300m building that will be the city's tallest when completed next year. Jeanne Leonard, a spokeswoman for Liberty Property Trust, the building's developer, said the urinals had been used in many other buildings around the country and would cut water use by 6 million liters a year.
■ Software
Microsoft's EU hearing ends
Microsoft Corp said on Friday it had made a breakthrough on the final day of hearings with EU regulators after an independent monitor outlined what it could do to stave off fines of 2 million euros (US$2.4 million) a day. However, EU officials and Microsoft rivals doubted the significance of the move. The European Committee for Interoperable Systems, said the issues had not changed. "Two years on, Microsoft's technical documentation remains incomplete, inaccurate and unusable," it said in a statement. Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith told reporters as he left the hearing that he was "very encouraged" by Professor Neil Barrett's plan to move forward and said it was the most positive step since last December, when the company was threatened with the fines. EU spokesman Jonathan Todd said the company still has to comply with the 2004 antitrust order to share technical information with rivals to help them make software compatible with Microsoft Windows. He said regulators would weigh all the information they had heard before deciding whether to levy fines.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last