INTERNET
Google hits billion mark
Figures released on Tuesday by industry tracker comScore credited Google with being the first online operation to attract more than 1 billion visitors in a single month. Slightly more than 1 billion people went to Google Web sites last month in what comScore billed as an unprecedented turn-out on the Internet. Microsoft Web sites were closing in on the milestone with about 900,000 “unique visitors” for the month, according to comScore. Facebook had the third most visited Web addresses, but topped other online venues in terms of how long people lingered after they arrived.
CLOTHING
Q2 profits fall at H&M
Swedish fashion retailer Hennes and Mauritz AB (H&M) yesterday blamed higher procurement costs as well as campaigns and special offers for an 18 percent drop in second-quarter profits. The Stockholm-based retailer said yesterday that net profit in the three month period fell to 4.3 billion kronor (US$673 million) from 5.2 billion kronor in the same quarter a year ago. However, sales in the quarter rose from 31.6 billion kronor to 32.4 billion kronor, while gross margin shrank from 65.9 percent to 61.7 percent. The company is planning 178 new stores in the second half of this year, with China, Britain and the US set to be the main expansion locations.
TELECOMS
Nokia to outsource Symbian
Nokia Corp says it has completed a deal to outsource its Symbian software development to Accenture that includes the transfer of 2,800 Nokia workers to the global management-consulting firm. The Finnish company says Accenture PLC will provide it with software services through 2016 with the transfer of personnel — in China, Finland, India, Britain and the US — expected in October, when the deal closes. Yesterday’s announcement came two months after Nokia disclosed the plan as part of its aim to slash 7,000 jobs worldwide as it strives to cut costs by US$1.5 billion by 2013 and catch up with rivals in the smartphone market.
FORESTRY
Sino-Forest Corp sued
Canadian-listed Chinese forest company Sino-Forest Corp (嘉漢林業) and its auditors are facing class action lawsuits following the meltdown of its shares amid allegations of accounting fraud. On Monday, two Canadian plaintiffs’ firms, Siskinds LLP and Koskie Minsky LLP, filed a US$6.5 billion lawsuit against Sino-Forest, its directors and officers, auditor Ernst & Young LLP and consulting firm Poyry Beijing. The lawsuit, which seeks class certification on behalf of Sino-Forest investors, said the company issued misleading financial statements, including prospectuses for stock offerings that raised almost US$950 million from investors.
RETAIL
GOME sues former boss
Chinese electrical appliance giant GOME (國美) has filed a lawsuit against its ex-chairman for allegedly damaging the firm’s reputation in a media interview, in the latest controversy to hit the company. Hong Kong-listed GOME said it had filed the suit in a Beijing court against Chen Xiao (陳曉) over comments he made in an article published in the 21st Century Business Herald, a Chinese publication, on May 10. GOME claimed the article, in which Chen described the events leading up to his departure from the firm in March, caused “financial damages to the company’s reputation and operations,” GOME said in a statement on Tuesday.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to