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Business Quick Take

■ INVESTMENT

E.Sun to buy back bonds

E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) said it would buy back US$267 million of bonds convertible into shares. E.Sun will purchase the bonds, issued in 2006, after an investor exercised the right to sell the securities, the Taipei-based company said in a filing to the stock exchange. The investor held a put option, which gives the holder of a security the right to sell under certain conditions. The terms of the bond and the identity of the seller were not provided in the statement. Temasek Holdings Pte, the Singapore government's investment company, bought the bonds in March 2006, the two companies said in a statement at that time.



■ INTERNET

'Spam king' admits guilt

A man once described as one of the world's top e-mail spammers pleaded guilty in Seattle, Washington, on Friday to federal charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and failure to file a tax return. Robert Alan Soloway, 29, was dubbed "the spam king" by prosecutors who said he used networks of compromised computers to send out millions upon millions of junk e-mails since 2003. He was arrested last summer and charged in a 40-count indictment. He agreed to plead guilty to the three charges and the rest were dropped, including e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and numerous other counts of mail and wire fraud. He could face up to 20 years in prison.



■ FOOD

Venezuela buys meat chain

The Venezuelan government has bought a private chain of meatpacking plants and has its sights set on a major dairy company, President Hugo Chavez said on Friday, as the country seeks to stem sporadic shortages of food staples. Chavez said the government purchased the meat plants as part of its efforts to improve food distribution while moving toward a socialist state. He did not identify the company or give details, but said it represents a majority of the country's meatpacking and cold-storage transport facilities. "We've nationalized a great chain," Chavez said, adding that the government bought it outright without "trampling" the seller's rights.



■ ELECTRONICS

US game sales jump 34%

US sales of video game hardware and software last month jumped 34 percent to US$1.33 billion, as Sony's PlayStation 3 outsold Microsoft's Xbox 360 for the second month running. Both consoles still trailed far behind Nintendo's Wii, which sold 432,000 units, compared to the PS3's 281,000 and Xbox 360's 255,000 units, market research firm NPD said. Overall the top selling console was Nintendo's handheld DS, which sold 588,000 units. Software sales last month were up 47 percent year-on-year, while hardware sales rose 19 percent, NPD said.



■ BANKING

Dresdner to split activities

Dresdner Bank, part of the giant Allianz insurance group, will split up its investment and retail banking activities, a spokesman said on Friday. The two entities would initially remain under the control of a single holding group, the spokesman said, confirming a report in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. No job cuts were foreseen, he said, speaking after a meeting of Dresdner Bank's supervisory board that sealed the deal. The announcement had been expected because the investment bank division, known as Dresdner Kleinwort, has posed problems for some time and has been hit hard by the US subprime home loan crisis.
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