■AVIATION
Shareholders back merger
Continental Airlines and United Airlines shareholders voted overwhelmingly to merge on Friday, paving the way for the creation of the world’s biggest airline. The firms announced an all-stock merger of equals on May 3 which is expected to close by Oct. 1. The new airline will serve more than 144 million passengers per year with 370 destinations in 59 countries.
■INTERNET
SouFun soars on debut
Shares of SouFun Holdings Ltd (搜房控股) leaped more than 70 percent during their US market debut on Friday, well ahead of the price the Chinese real estate Web site operator set for its initial public offering. The Beijing-based company’s American Depositary shares rose to US$73.21 in afternoon trading after being priced a day earlier at US$42.50 each.
■ECONOMY
IMF reaches funding deal
The IMF announced on Friday it had reached a deal with authorities in Japan, Britain, France and China to provide US$8 billion worth of funding to low-income countries. “The agreements ... expand the IMF’s capacity to help low-income countries hit hard by the current global crisis,” the Washington-based body said.
■BANKING
Bank closures continue
Georgia’s Community & Southern Bank picked up US$800 million in deposits as it acquired three of the six US banks that collapsed this week, bringing the year’s failure count to 125. Banks in Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin were closed by regulators, according to statements posted on Friday on the Web site of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which was named receiver. This week’s failures cost the agency’s deposit-insurance fund US$347.6 million. US regulators closed 140 banks last year.
■TELECOMS
Bharti Airtel, IBM ink deal
India’s top mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel said on Friday it had chosen US computer giant IBM to supply information technology services to drive the modernization of its new African networks. Under the agreement, IBM will manage the computing technology, customer and other services underpinning Bharti Airtel’s mobile communications network spanning 16 African countries including Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya. Bharti gave no financial details.
■AUTOMOBILES
Toyota settles lawsuit
A report says Toyota Motor Corp has settled a lawsuit brought by relatives of four family members killed in a high-speed crash near San Diego that galvanized attention around safety flaws in the firm’s vehicles and led to the recalls of millions of cars. The Los Angeles Times said on Friday that Toyota revealed the settlement in a letter to a US Superior Court judge, gave no details about the terms.
■BANKING
Citi leaves student loans
Citigroup Inc said on Friday it is selling its student loan business and about US$32 billion in related assets to Discover Financial Services and the student lender Sallie Mae, Citi’s latest move to focus on its core consumer banking business. The company has been looking for a buyer for its 80 percent stake in the Student Loan Corp for some time as it refocuses it operations. Citigroup said on Friday it will take a loss of about US$500 million on the deal in this year’s third quarter.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure