■ TELECOMS
Motorola takes US$101m hit
Motorola Inc, the world's No. 2 mobile phone maker behind Nokia Corp, said it will take a pretax charge of US$101 million in its second quarter after cutting 2,100 jobs. The company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late on Thursday that the total consists of US$115 million in layoff-related charges and US$14 million in reversals for prior-period accruals that it no longer needs. Motorola said in May that it would complete an already-announced plan to lay off 3,500 employees by the end of last month. At that time, the mobile phone maker also said it would cut another 4,000 jobs.
■ ENERGY
Bio-jet fuel tests planned
Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state oil company, plans to study and distribute bio-jet fuel made from an oilseed blend. Studies by Brazil's TecBio, Boeing Co and NASA show use of the fuel is feasible, Petrobras said yesterday at a biofuels conference in Rio de Janeiro. Experimental tests with alternative jet fuels will begin this month under the TecBio-Boeing-NASA program, Francelino da Silva Paes, a Petrobras biofuels official, said during a presentation of the company's plan. The world's first demonstration flight using the fuel is planned for next year by Boeing, General Electric Co and Virgin Atlantic Airways, he said.
■ FOODSTUFFS
Burger King to ax trans fats
Burger King Corp, the No. 2 hamburger chain, said on Friday that all of its US restaurants would be using frying oil that is free of artery-clogging trans fats by the end of next year. The announcement comes nearly two months after nutrition advocacy group the Center for Science in the Public Interest sued Burger King over the company's use of oil containing trans fats, saying it was the only leading restaurant chain that had not yet committed to eliminating trans fats from its menu. If adequate supply of the oils becomes available, the US roll-out could be completed sooner than the target, the Miami-based company said.
■ TELECOMS
Nacchio facing jail term
Prosecutors recommended that former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio serve a maximum of seven years and three months in prison for completing US$52 million in illegal stock sales when his telecommunications company was at financial risk. In a brief filed late on Friday, government attorneys also recommended Nacchio serve three years probation and be fined a maximum of US$19 million. Nacchio, who resigned from Qwest Communications International Inc under pressure in June 2002, is scheduled to be sentenced on July 27 in US District Court.
■ EMPLOYMENT
Talent-seeking trip planned
The Executive Yuan is working to organize a delegation for a visit to the US and Canada in September to discover and invite science and technology talents living in those countries to work in Taiwan, a spokesman for the semi-official Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said yesterday. TAITRA said the talent-seeking mission will visit Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Houston and Washington in the US, as well as Toronto in Canada between Sept. 6 and Sept. 18. During their stay in each of the cities, the delegation hopes to seek talents in the fields of fundamental science, biotechnology, WiMAX, information and communication technology as well as digital content.
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