■Computers
Acer licenses trademark
Taiwan’s personal computer maker Acer Inc (宏碁) said it will pay US$67.5 million for a license to use Founder Technology Group Corp’s (方正) PC-related trademarks for seven years. Acer will pay a further 51 million yuan for information technology systems, copyrights and patents from Shanghai-based Founder’s PC business, and 68 million yuan for customer-service and retail operations, the Taipei-based company said in an exchange filing. Acer unveiled its tie-up with Founder earlier this month.
■Finance
Yen surge raises concerns
Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan will take “bold” action if necessary to curb the yen’s surge to a 15-year high and called on the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to do more to spur economic growth. The comments echoed those on Friday by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is pushing the central bank to ease monetary policy given persistent deflation and the yen’s impact on export earnings. Kan said he expects to speak with BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa soon. The BOJ, which is scheduled to hold its next policy meeting on Sept. 6-7, may hold an emergency session early next week to consider more easing, Nikkei English News reported yesterday.
■Mining
Vale to cut iron ore prices
Brazilian mining giant Vale SA is slashing its price for iron ore by about 10 percent, saying the cut is in line with a drop in spot prices in China. The world’s largest producer of iron ore did not give more details in a statement issued on Friday. O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said Vale’s iron ore currently sells for US$150 per ton and that should now drop to US$135. It added that since 20 percent of the world’s steel is manufactured with iron ore from Vale, the price reduction should have a significant impact in Asia and Europe.
■Mining
BHP mulls coking coal cut
BHP Billiton Ltd, the world’s largest mining company, may agree with Japanese steelmakers to cut coking coal prices by between 4 percent and 10 percent in the fourth quarter, Nikkei English News reported yesterday. BHP proposed a price of about US$215 a metric tonne, down from US$225 in the third quarter, for the coal used to make steel, Nikkei said. The company raised the price of coking coal in the third quarter by more than 10 percent from the April-to-June period.
■Internet
DOJ probes Google
Federal regulators are taking a closer look at Google Inc’s plans to buy travel technology company ITA Software Inc in a US$700 million all-cash deal announced last month. In a blog post on Friday, Google said the Department of Justice has asked it for more information about the proposed acquisition, which could position the search giant to compete with popular travel sites such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. ITA Software, provides technology that helps run the reservation systems of several airlines.
■Automobiles
Ford recalls vehicles
Ford Motor Co says it is recalling 575,000 older model Windstar vans in the US and Canada because of the possibility that the rear axles can corrode and break. The recall covers vehicles from 1998 to 2003 sold in states where the heavy use of road salt can cause more corrosion. That includes Canada, New England, the Mid-Atlantic states and the Great Lakes region. Ford says it plans to start notifying owners on Sept. 27.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”