RETAIL
Burberry posts gains
Luxury goods company Burberry has reported a 30 percent gain in sales in the first quarter, despite a fairly difficult economic backdrop in many developed markets around the world. The company said yesterday that first quarter sales of £367 million (US$585 million) were up from £282 million a year earlier. Retail sales spiked 44 percent to £245 million, while wholesale and licensing revenues rose about 10 percent. Asia-Pacific emerged as the company’s best performing region, with sales up more than 60 percent, largely on the back of expansion in China. The company did not
RETAIL
M&S meets forecasts
British retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) met forecasts with a seventh consecutive rise in underlying quarterly sales, as its older and more affluent customers cope better with a squeeze in disposable incomes. Britain’s biggest clothing retailer, which also sells housewares and upmarket foods, said yesterday sales at UK stores open over a year, excluding VAT sales tax, rose 1.7 percent in the 13 weeks to July 2, its fiscal first quarter.
TECHNOLOGY
Profits rise for ASML
ASML Holding NV, Europe’s largest computer chip equipment supplier, says profits rose in the second quarter and it expects to meet its full-year sales targets. However, the supplier to Intel, Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) says its customers are starting to hold off on new orders because of uncertainties over the economy. ASML said net profit was 432 million euros (US$606 million), up from 239 million euros in the same period a year ago. Sales rose 43 percent to 1.53 billion euros. Chief executive Eric Meurice repeated a forecast yesterday that the company’s full year sales would pass 5 billion euros for the first time.
RETAIL
Carrefour sales increase
Carrefour, the world’s second-biggest retailer, said yesterday its first-half sales were up 2.75 percent at 44.6 billion euros (US$63.4 billion). However, it forecast a 23 percent dip in operating profits for the same period, of “around 760 million euros,” which it said was “mainly attributable to France.” Operating profits for the same period last year were 989 million euros, excluding Dia, the discount branch introduced on the Madrid exchange on July 5.
VIDEO GAMES
EA to buy PopCap
Electronic Arts Inc (EA) says it will buy mobile and social-network game maker PopCap Games for at least US$750 million. The video game publisher also says its first-quarter results will be better than it anticipated, but its second-quarter results will fall below analyst estimates. EA said on Tuesday that it will pay PopCap US$650 million in cash and US$100 million in common shares. PopCap will get up to US$550 million more if it reaches certain financial milestones.
TECHNOLOGY
Hynix, Toshiba team up
South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor and Japanese electronics giant Toshiba said yesterday they have agreed to jointly develop a next-generation memory device. The companies said in a statement that the tie-up to develop spin-transfer torque magnetoresistance random access memory (STT-MRAM) technology — for use in devices such as smartphones — would help them minimize risk. The two companies intend to set up a joint production venture once the technology has been successfully developed, the statement 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],”
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy