BIOTECHNOLOGY
Genzyme faces hostile bid
Sanofi-Aventis launched a hostile takeover battle yesterday for Genzyme Corp aimed at capturing the US biotech company’s promising drugs for high cholesterol and lucrative treatments for rare genetic disorders. Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis’ US$69 per share offer values the Cambridge, Massachusetts, company at US$18.5 billion, unchanged from a friendly offer Sanofi-Aventis made privately to Genzyme management in July and publicly disclosed in August. Sanofi-Aventis CEO Chris Viehbacher said he decided to go straight to shareholders with the offer because Genzyme management “refused to engage in constructive discussions” despite several attempts by Sanofi-Aventis. The offer to Genzyme shareholders runs until Dec. 10.
TELECOMS
Verizon to refund US$90m
US telecom titan Verizon Wireless will pay back up to US$90 million to about 15 million cellphone users who were charged for services they did not use, the New York Times said on Sunday. In what will be one of the largest refunds to customers of any telecom company, Verizon said it would give credits worth US$2 to US$6 for this month or next month’s bills, the newspaper said. Verizon said in a statement that affected customers were charged for data services or other Internet usage when they had not subscribed to them. The move comes as the US Federal Communications Commission probes Verizon over complaints surrounding the unauthorized charges.
INSURANCE
Allianz sets buyout budget
German insurer Allianz has set aside 1 billion euros (US$1.37 billion) for future acquisitions but will take its time and shop carefully, CEO Michael Diekmann said in an interview published yesterday. One of the world’s biggest insurers wants to wait until the effects of new European capital rules for insurance companies, known as Solvency II, have become clearer, Diekmann told the Financial Times. Allianz is looking meanwhile at property and casualty insurance firms that would help fund the development of its life insurance activities, he said.
STEEL
JSW, JFE in talks
India’s third largest steelmaker JSW Steel Ltd is in talks with JFE Steel Corp to take a stake in the Japanese firm in a bid to strengthen their ties, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. JSW vice chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal told the newspaper that his company aimed to hold an interest of less than 5 percent in the JFE Holdings Inc unit within one to two years. The two companies have already begun talks on the planned capital investment, Jindal said, adding that JFE Steel said it was ready to accept JSW’s offer.
CREDIT CARDS
Anti-trust decision coming
The US Justice Department may decide as early as this week how to resolve its two-year antitrust probe of merchant restrictions imposed by Visa Inc, MasterCard Inc and American Express Co, three people briefed on the matter said. The department still hasn’t decided whether it can reach a deal with the three biggest US payment networks or challenge their policies in court, one of the people said. The department will likely will file a lawsuit, and MasterCard and Visa are expected to settle, people familiar with the matter said. The talks focus on rules that bar merchants from charging extra to customers who use credit cards and steering them to competing cards, and require retailers to accept every type of card banks issue, the people said.
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
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day