■ TELECOMS
Shopping network sold
Eastern Home Shopping Network (東森得意購), Taiwan's largest TV shopping service provider, was sold to a local company for NT$340 million (US$10.52 million), the Chinese-language Commercial Times reported yesterday, citing Jimmy Chang (張水江), former chairman of Era TV Group (年代影事集團). The report said Peak Profit BVI (尖端利潤) -- a company cofounded by Chang and several local businesses and foreign buyout firms -- signed an agreement with Eastern Home Shopping on Dec. 27 to acquire 100 percent of the TV shopping network. Chang is a vice chairman of Saga Unitek Ventures (國聯創投) and was previously CEO of Sanlih SET TV Ltd (三立電視).
■ JAPAN
Tokyo selling residence
Tokyo's city government is selling its governor's residence, which has been lying empty for years, hoping to raise tens of millions of dollars for local government coffers. The four-bedroom house, complete with meeting rooms and an emergency communications center, is set on more than 20,000m2 of land in an upmarket area of Shibuya in central Tokyo, the Yomiuri Shimbun said yesterday. Rebuilt at a cost of US$11.22 million in 1997, it was occupied by the then governor for less than two years. Later, Governor Shintaro Ishihara refused to move in when he was elected, saying he could not relax there, the paper said.
■ TELECOMS
Sprint cutting 4,000 jobs
US telecommunications firm Sprint Nextel announced on Friday it was cutting 4,000 jobs, saying it anticipated "downward pressure" on its profits in the coming year. The company, which is based in Reston, Virginia, said it would also close 125 company-owned retail stores in a bid to cut costs. Sprint Nextel said it was cutting jobs and closing 8 percent of its total company-owned outlets in a bid to "streamline" its business operations. The telecoms firm said it had signed up over 500,000 new subscribers during the fourth quarter of last year, but lost more than 600,000 existing subscribers.
■ ENERGY
Investors vie for share offer
India's biggest share offer by Reliance Power was oversubscribed 73 times as investors scrambled to apply for a slice of the nearly US$3 billion flotation, final figures showed yesterday. The initial public offering (IPO) made financial history in Indian capital markets, including the largest number of applications, bankers said. Investors submitted bids worth US$191 billion. Reliance Power, owned by tycoon Anil Ambani, offered 260 million shares, or 10.1 percent of its capital. The IPO received 4.7 million applications, beating the previous record of 1.95 million from an offering by Reliance Petroleum in 2006.
■ AVIATION
Air China bids for rival
Air China Ltd's parent made a bid for a stake in rival China Eastern Airlines Corp, after Singapore Airlines Ltd's HK$3.80 (US$0.49) a share offer was rejected. China National Aviation Holding Co proposed to become "alliance partners" with China Eastern, China National Aviation said in an announcement in the Shanghai Securities News yesterday. Details of the offer will be announced on Tuesday, it said. Air China, the world's largest airline by market value, and affiliate Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd are seeking a tie-up with Shanghai-based China Eastern. China National Aviation will offer at least HK$5 a share.
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