■INTERNET
Google founders sell shares
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each plan to sell 5 million shares in the Internet giant, a move that would reduce their joint holdings to below 50 percent, a filing TO the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Friday. The SEC filing said the stock sales, which will occur over the next five years, are part of a pre-determined stock trading plan set up by Page and Brin on Nov. 30.
■BREWERIES
Beer blockade lifted
A blockade that threatened to strangle supplies of top Belgian beers to home and neighboring European markets ended on Friday, after management and unions said a compromise was reached. Two weeks after workers first barricaded Stella Artois, Jupiler and Hoegaarden breweries, in protest at owners Anheuser-Busch InBev’s plans to cut 10 percent of its European workforce, drinkers can breathe easier. AB InBev produces around 60 percent of the beer consumed in Belgium’s bars and cafes.
■COMPUTERS
Wife punishes Oracle chief
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and Oracle Corp president Charles Phillips has learned that lesson in a very public way. Huge billboards depicting the married software executive with YaVaughnie Wilkins, his former mistress, appeared this week in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco, setting tabloid tongues wagging. The billboards with the words “You are my soulmate forever!” appeared to be an attempt by Wilkins to embarrass Phillips after their relationship ended and he returned to his wife. The billboards also featured the address of a Web site that contains photos of Wilkins and Phillips, karaoke tracks and articles written by Wilkins.
■BANKING
Barclays’ bonuses deferred
Top staff at Barclays will defer payment of up to 100 percent of their bonuses for up to three years as they seek to respond to public anger about banking pay, the Financial Times reported Saturday. The business daily said this would apply to members of the British bank’s 11-member executive committee, led by chief executive John Varley, while the next 2,000 or so staff could defer upwards of 75 percent for three years.
■INDUSTRY
GE income down 19 percent
General Electric Co’s fourth-quarter net income fell 19 percent, but the industrial bellwether is seeing signs of stability as it moves into a key rebuilding year. For the quarter, GE posted net income of US$2.94 billion, or US$0.28 per share. That compared with US$3.65 billion, or US$0.35, a year earlier. GE said that orders improved late in the year in its businesses that supply equipment like turbines for power plants and sonogram machines for hospitals.
■FAST FOOD
McDonald’s profit rises
McDonald’s dollar menu keeps gaining fans in the recession, and its profit rose last fall, but the world’s largest burger chain said on Friday that its annual revenue slipped for the first time in at least a quarter century. For the three months that ended on Dec. 31, McDonald’s rang up revenue of US$5.97 billion — 7 percent more than the same period last year. Falling commodity costs and currency fluctuations helped boost the company’s fourth quarter profit, which amounted to US$1.22 billion, or US$1.11 per share. For the full year, McDonald’s profit climbed 6 percent to US$4.55 billion, or US$4.11 per share.
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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