■INTERNET
Google’s market share up
Internet search giant Google slightly increased its share of the US search engine market last month, online researcher comScore Inc reported on Friday. The Virginia-based company said Google sites led the US search market with 63.5 percent of the searches conducted, a gain of 0.4 percentage points from October. The number of searches conducted on Yahoo sites fell 0.1 percentage points to 20.4 percent, comScore said. Searches on Microsoft sites fell 0.2 percentage points to 8.3 percent. ComScore said Americans made a total of 12.3 billion searches last month, a 3 percent decline from October, which had 31 days as opposed to 30.
■ENERGY
Petrobras postpones deal
Brazilian state oil company Petrobras has postponed finalizing a five-year investment plan amid “uncertainty and volatility” in world oil markets. Petroleo Brasileiro SA said its board of directors unanimously agreed on Friday to reevaluate existing projects and reconsider its spending plan for next year to 2013. Oil prices reached record highs in July and have since tanked more than 70 percent. That volatility has complicated the company’s efforts to forecast earnings and plan spending.
■VIDEO GAMES
Electronic Arts cuts jobs
Struggling US video game maker Electronic Arts Inc announced additional job cuts on Friday and said it would merge or close at least nine studios and publishing facilities. The Redwood City, California, company said it was cutting its worldwide workforce by 10 percent, or 1,000 jobs, an increase of 4 percent over the 6 percent workforce reduction announced in October. “The restructuring also calls for consolidation or closure of at least nine studio and publishing locations,” the publisher of popular titles such as Madden NFL 09, Spore and Warhammer Online said in a statement.
■FINANCE
Citic plan gets go-ahead
Shareholders of Citic Pacific Ltd (中信泰富), the Hong Kong arm of a Chinese government investment firm, approved a bailout from its parent company to cover losses from bad currency bets. A majority of independent shareholders voted in favor of a HK$11.6 billion loan (US$1.5 billion) provided by Beijing-based Citic Group, said a document filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange late on Friday.
■JAPAN
Cabinet approves package
The Cabinet yesterday approved a ¥4.8 trillion (US$54 billion) second extra budget to finance a massive stimulus package, government officials said. Prime Minister Taro Aso’s Cabinet plans to submit the budget, for the year to March, to parliament early next year, the officials said. The budget, exceeding the ¥1.81 trillion first supplementary budget, is intended to fund cash handouts, a job-creation scheme and other economic measures in the ¥26.9 trillion stimulus package unveiled in October.
■LATVIA
Aid package under way
An aid package for Latvia being drawn up by the IMF and the European Commission will be ready on Friday, a source with knowledge of the talks said. The source did not know the size of the loan. The Diena newspaper said that according to its information the total loan would be worth US$10.47 billion. The loan is to come from the IMF, the commission and the Nordic countries, officials said.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
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