■ ENTERTAINMENT
Disney raises park prices
Walt Disney World is raising ticket prices for the third time in two years, company officials said. An adult one-day, one-park pass will rise 6 percent to US$71 beginning today. Discount packages also will be affected, but the per-day cost could be less than US$23 for adults who buy a 10-day package. The change is due to an annual planning cycle of travel wholesalers, tour organizers and commercial publications, Disney officials told the Orlando Sentinel. "We strongly believe that Walt Disney World represents a great entertainment value. Our guests agree," spokesman Rick Sylvain told the newspaper. Disney last raised prices last August when a one-day, one-park ticket went from US$63 to US$67.
■ ELECTRONICS
Samsung back on line
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co said yesterday that all six chip production lines at its plant near Seoul resumed normal operations after disruptions owing to a power failure a day earlier. Losses stemming from the disruption would not exceed 40 billion won (US$43.3 million), below its initial estimate of 50 billion won, the company said in a statement. Production at the six chip lines at the plant was disrupted after a power system exploded on Friday.
■ FOOTWEAR
Nike opens Beijing store
Nike opened a flagship store in Beijing on Friday, increasing its presence in the key market as China's economy grows and the 2008 Olympics approach. The Beijing store is the largest of about 3,000 Nike retail destinations in China. Nike previously sold products through other retail stores there, including some owned by partner companies or at Nike outlet stores. This is the company's first Nike-branded and owned retail store in China. The Beaverton-based company says China is poised to be a US$1 billion business and Nike's second-largest market in the world.
■ BANKING
M&A deals double in value
The value of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in Asia's banking industry nearly doubled last year, with India and China clinching the greatest number of deals, a report said yesterday. Excluding Japan, total banking M&A volume soared 96.1 percent to US$30 billion last year from US$15.3 billion the previous year, market researcher The Asian Banker said. The jump was driven by "intensified domestic market consolidation and increasingly capital-rich banking institutions snapping up stakes in the region," senior research analyst Benny Zhang said. Cross-border deals within the Asia-Pacific region more than quadrupled to US$4.2 billion from US$900 million the previous year.
■ ONLINE AUCTIONS
Court favors winning bidder
The Supreme Court in Sydney yesterday ruled that a notification a bid had won was legally binding. The case pitted a vendor who refused to hand over a vintage plane to a winning bidder after receiving a better offer elsewhere. The decision was welcomed by eBay Australia spokesman Daniel Feiler, who said it was the first time to his knowledge that a vendor had been taken to court for refusing to relinquish an item that had been sold. The World War II aircraft had been put up for sale with a reserve price of A$150,000 (US$126,000). With 20 seconds left before the auction closed, a bid of A$150,000 arrived and the bidder was notified he had won. The seller then declined to settle because he had received an outside offer of A$220,000.
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