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.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six