■RETAIL
Nook reader sold out
US bookstore giant Barnes & Noble said on Friday it had sold out of its new electronic book reader, the “Nook,” and the next shipments would not be available until after the holidays. “Nook continues to be the fastest-selling product at Barnes & Noble, and pre-orders have continued to exceed our expectations,” the company said in a statement. “All customers ordering a Nook beginning today, November 20, should expect their devices to ship beginning the week of January 4, 2010.” Barnes & Noble unveiled the Nook last month to compete with the Kindle from online retail giant Amazon and the Sony Reader from the Japanese electronics firm.
■MEXICO
Economy expanded in Q3
The economy grew 2.93 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months in a first sign of recovery from recession in Latin America’s second-largest economy, the national statistics institute said on Friday. Despite the quarterly improvement, GDP still shrank 6.2 percent compared with the same period last year, INEGI said in a statement. Mexico officially entered a recession in the first quarter of this year, with GDP declining 8.2 percent. It saw its worst performance on record, with a 10.3 percent drop, in the second quarter, during which the first outbreak of swine flu froze tourism and pounded the economy.
■MEDIA
Ex-Vivendi chief on trial
Vivendi’s former CEO said he made mistakes in his troubled bid to turn a French water company into a global media giant but never misled shareholders about the risks involved. Jean-Marie Messier told a federal jury on Friday in New York he did his “very best” to build the company and couldn’t foresee worldwide financial problems that contributed to its near-bankruptcy in 2002. Messier was on trial in a lawsuit filed for thousands of investors. They say what was then Vivendi Universal hid its worsening finances in 2001 and 2002. Messier led a buyout binge that saddled the company with billions of dollars of debt. Its shares lost more than 80 percent of their value. He was forced out in 2002.
■AUTOS
Porsche approves merger
German sports carmaker Porsche said on Friday its board had agreed to the group’s planned integration into Volkswagen (VW), Europe’s biggest auto manufacturer. The decision by the Porsche supervisory board came after German-based VW’s supervisory board agreed to the contracts paving the way for its planned takeover of the legendary sports car group. The next big step in the merger of the two carmakers will come at the end of this year when VW acquires a 49.9 percent stake in Porsche at a cost of about US$3.9 billion euros (US$5.8 billion). The integration of the two groups is expected to be completed in 2011.
■INTERNET
Judge sets Google hearing
A US judge set Feb. 18 for a hearing on the revised legal settlement between Google and US authors and publishers that would allow the Internet giant to scan and sell millions of books online. Judge Denny Chin also granted preliminary approval to the agreement in a move welcomed by Google but which opponents said was procedural and had no bearing on whether he would give a green light to the settlement in February. Chin on Thursday also set Jan. 28 as the date for groups to lodge objections to the class action settlement with his Southern District of New York court.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
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