AVIATION
Boeing 787 delayed
US aerospace giant Boeing Co has warned some customers its new 787 Dreamliner will face delays of up to 10 months, Aviation Week reported on Friday, citing industry sources. According to people familiar with the situation, Korean Air is the airline hardest hit so far, the industry magazine said on its Web site. Korean will get its first 787 in August 2012, 10 months later than previously planned. Air India now is believed to be scheduled to receive its first 787 in September or October next year instead of April, while Japan Airlines will take delivery of its first 787 in June next year at the earliest, Aviation Week said.
COMPUTERS
Dell mulls going private
US computer giant Dell Inc has not ruled out going private as it weighs its options for the future, chief financial officer Brian Gladden said in an interview published on Friday “We spend a whole lot of time thinking about this,” Gladden told CNNMoney.com. “There are many options for us, and we have lots of cash on hand,” he said. “We talk about everything from keeping everything the same, to doing a bigger and broader buyback, while still keeping the company public, all the way to doing a leveraged buyout and taking the company private with [chief executive Michael Dell] as the primary shareholder.” The company will discuss the issue next month in a board meeting, Gladden said.
PUBLISHING
Magazine drops subscribers
US News & World Report magazine plans to stop sending its monthly print edition to subscribers next year and go mostly online. In a memo sent to staff on Friday, Brian Kelly, the magazine’s editor, said next month’s issue will be the last monthly issue sent to subscribers. Monthly print versions will continue to be available at newsstands and it will continue to publish occasional guides on colleges, history, personal finance and other topics. Its content will continue to be available at USNews.com, which has 9 million visitors a month. Kelly told the New York Times that the move won’t result in more layoffs.
FINANCING
Fannie Mae’s losses narrow
US government-controlled mortgage buyer Fannie Mae is asking for US$2.5 billion in additional US federal aid after posting a narrower loss in the third quarter. Fannie Mae said on Friday it lost US$3.46 billion, or US$0.61 cents a share, in the July-to-September quarter. That takes into account US$2.1 billion in dividend payments to the US Treasury Department. It compares with a loss of US$19.8 billion, or US$3.47 a share, in the third quarter of last year. The US federal government rescued Washington-based Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac about two years ago and it estimates that will cost US taxpayers up to US$259 billion.
INSURANCE
AIG shows Q3 loss
American International Group Inc (AIG) is reporting a US$2.4 billion loss, or US$17.62 per share, for the third quarter, dragged down by hefty charges tied to selling off some assets. That were compared with earnings of US$92 million, or US$0.68 cents per share, a year ago. Restructuring-related charges amounted to US$4.5 billion. The sale of AIG’s 80 percent stake in consumer credit business American General Finance Inc weighed heavily on the quarter. Revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 dipped 3 percent to US$19.09 billion from US$19.6 billion, the New York-based company said on Friday.
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
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the