■ Computers
HP profit up 35 percent
Hewlett-Packard said on Tuesday that its profit increased 35 percent in its first quarter as revenue grew 11 percent. The company said net income for the quarter ended on Jan. 31, was US$1.8 billion, or US$0.65 a share, compared with US$1.4 billion, or US$0.48 a year earlier. Revenue climbed to US$25.1 billion from US$22.7 billion a year earlier. Analysts had been expecting net earnings of US$0.62 a share. Strong sales of personal computers were crucial to the firm's performance. Revenue for its PC unit grew 17 percent to US$8.7 billion. While desktop sales declined slightly, sales of notebook computers rose 40 percent.
■ Takeovers
UB Group eyes whisky firm
Indian liquor baron Vijay Mallya's UB Group said yesterday it was scrutinizing the books of scotch-whisky maker Whyte and Mackay prior to a possible takeover reportedly worth US$1.07 billion. "The due diligence process is under way," P.A. Murali, chief financial officer of UB Spirits Ltd, India's largest distiller, told reporters in Bangalore. Murali said it would be "speculative" to comment on the likely date of an agreement. UB Group, founded in 1915 to make bulk beer for British troops, said last month that it was in talks to acquire Glasgow-based Whyte and Mackay.
■ Internet
Wikipedia not in trouble
The president of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the free Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, on Tuesday rebutted rumors circulating on the web that it is dangerously short of money. Florence Devouard, who lives in France, is quoted by bloggers as saying that the foundation only has resources for a few more months and that without new funding it could close. But she told reporters remarks she made at a conference were being misconstrued. "There are indeed only about US$1 million in the bank, but compared to previous years that is almost comfortable. It is enough for three or four months -- nothing to panic about," she said.
■ Automakers
Hyundai chairman in India
Hyundai Motor Co chairman Chung Mong-koo left for India on business yesterday, the company said, on Chung's first trip abroad since he was handed a prison term earlier this month. Chung plans to check progress at Hyundai's second Indian plant, which is slated to start operating in the third quarter of this year in the city of Chennai, said Oles Gadacz, Hyundai's director of global public relations. The Seoul District Court on Feb. 5 convicted Chung for illegally raising a US$110 million slush fund from affiliates, as well as other wrongdoing in one of South Korea's most high-profile corruption scandals. Last year Chung was jailed for about two months before being released on bail.
■ Steel
Mittal to sell Baltimore mill
The US Justice Department on Tuesday ordered global steel giant Mittal Steel Co to sell its Sparrows Point mill near Baltimore, Maryland, to settle antitrust issues raised by the Dutch firm's recent merger with Arcelor SA. The proposed consent decree would allow Mittal to keep a Weirton, West Virginia, mill that had volunteered to be sold to preserve competition for tin-plated steel, used primarily for food and aerosol cans. Illinois-based Esmark Inc said it might consider a joint venture to buy Sparrows Point if the Weirton mill is unavailable, and industry experts said a number of German, Indian and Russian companies are shopping for North American steel mills.
■ Entertainment
Warner/EMI talks continue
US record company Warner Music Group Corp said yesterday that any offer for Britain's EMI Group PLC was likely to be all cash. In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, New York-based Warner said its shareholders would not be required to notify their interests in its securities under UK takeover regulations if it does bid for EMI. The statement gave no further clues as to Warner's intentions. A merged EMI and Warner Music would control about 25 percent of the global recorded music market, ranking second to Vivendi SA's Universal Music, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said.
■ Economy
China's growth contracts
Economic growth in China this year will drop to single digits for the first time in five years, state media reported yesterday, citing a senior government researcher. The world's fourth-largest economy is expected to expand by 9 percent this year, the China Daily said, citing Liu Shijin (劉世錦), deputy director of the Development Research Center, a think tank attached to the Cabinet. That is down from 10.7 percent last year, the fourth consecutive year of double-digit growth. Liu said China would see growth rates of 7 percent to 8 percent in the next 10 years.
■ Housing
Strong growth in Taichung
The new housing market in Taichung recorded a growth of more than 7 percent last year, Wang Chung-cheng (王忠正), chairman of the Taichung Real Estate Development Association, said yesterday. The value of the new housing projects launched in Taichung last year was NT$117.15 billion (US$3.54 billion), an increase of NT$9.5 billion, or 7.7 percent, from 2005, he said. The city's Hsitun (西屯) District was the most sought-after neighborhood for house buyers, accounting for 35 percent of the new housing market. Wang said that the total value of new projects in Taichung will reach NT$150 billion this year.
■ Banking
Police launch investor probe
Hong Kong police are probing claims that investors cheated to win share allotments in last year's spate of huge stock exchange initial public offerings of Chinese banks, a report said yesterday. Investigators believe some small investors hungry for a piece of the hugely over-subscribed offers had submitted multiple applications under different names to increase their chances of being allotted a portion of shares. A report in the Hong Kong Standard English-language daily said that the scam was first noticed during last year's biggest share offers, of Industrial and Commerce Bank of China (中國工商銀行) and Bank of China (中國銀行).
■ Shipping
Taiwan to build cruise ships
Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) plans to branch into cruise travel, CNA said on Tuesday. "Yang Ming Marine has invested in container shipping, port facilities and land transport. Our mid- and long-term goals are tourism," Chu Tong-ping (朱統平), executive director of the Yang Ming Marine Culture Foundation, said. As very few foreign cruise liners dock at Taiwan's ports, Chu said the company plans to branch into the cruise business and have Taiwan's own cruise ships built, so that foreign tourists can visit on Taiwanese-owned luxury cruise ships. The company plans to launch its first luxury cruise ship in 2012.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained