ELECTRONICS
India sales to rise: Sony
Sony Corp expects its sales of televisions in India to almost double to about 1.6 million units next fiscal year, Sony India managing director Masaru Tamagawa told reporters yesterday in Tokyo. Japan’s biggest exporter of consumer electronics aims to sell a third of the 4.5 million to 5 million TVs projected to India during the 12 months ending March next year, compared with the 850,000 sets Sony expects to sell there this fiscal year, he said. The maker of Cyber-shot cameras and Bravia televisions expects sales in the world’s second-most populous country to rise 46 percent to 56 billion rupees (US$1.2 billion) in the year ending on March 31, Tamagawa said earlier this month.
INDUSTRY
Danisco offer extended
US chemical giant DuPont Co extended by more than a month its US$5.8 billion offer for Danisco A/S because regulators in China and the EU haven’t decided whether to approve the deal. Danisco shareholders have until April 1 to tender their shares for 665 Danish kroner (US$121) apiece as the original offer was due to expire on Tuesday. So far, 5 percent of the shares in Copenhagen-based Danisco have been tendered, which is “in line” with past voluntary offers in Denmark, DuPont said yesterday in a statement. DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman agreed to buy Danisco on Jan. 9 to gain production of food additives and enzymes used in biofuels. Elliott Associates LP, a New York-based hedge fund, and Copenhagen-based retirement fund AP Pension are among investors who have spurned the bid for being too low.
ELECTRONICS
Apple’s service under probe
The US Department of Justice and the US Federal Trade Commission are beginning to examine whether Apple Inc’s new media subscription service violates antitrust laws, two people familiar with the matter said. The agencies haven’t decided whether to pursue a more formal investigation as the examination is at a preliminary stage, said the people, who requested anonymity because the matter is confidential. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on the preliminary investigations. Apple on Tuesday said it was starting a subscription service for publishers to sell newspapers and magazines on the iPad and other devices through the company’s online App Store. The commission has been reviewing separate allegations that Apple is engaging in anti-competitive tactics to restrict rivals in the mobile-advertising market. The Justice Department is looking into Apple’s business practices regarding its iTunes digital music service.
ECONOMY
India introduces CPI
The Indian government yesterday launched a new price index aimed at measuring the cost of living across rural and urban areas as it battles to bring inflation under control. Billed as the “common man” index, it will not replace the main price measure — the wholesale price index (WPI) — but it will give the central bank an extra tool to assess rising costs that are fanning public anger. A national poll last weekend found inflation, stoked by soaring food prices, was beginning to “seriously hurt” family household budgets. The new index showed consumer price inflation at 6 percent nationwide last month, more than 2 percentage points below the WPI, which measures a wider basket of goods, such as machinery and basic metals.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is