MEDIA
Murdoch’s daughter says no
Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth will not be joining News Corp’s board as had been planned, after criticism that the board was populated by corporate and family insiders. It is the latest fallout after a phone-hacking scandal led News Corp to close its British newspaper, News of the World. “The independent directors agreed that the previously planned nomination should be delayed,” a board statement said. Elisabeth Murdoch had suggested to independent directors at this year’s annual general meeting weeks ago that she felt it would be inappropriate for her to join the board, according to the statement. “Both Elisabeth and the Board hope this decision reaffirms that News Corp aspires to the highest standards of corporate governance and will continue to act in the best interests of all stakeholders,” the statement said.
FINANCE
Citi Cards compromised
Private data for more than 90,000 customers of Citigroup’s Japanese credit-card subsidiary has been stolen and unlawfully resold, the company said on Friday. Citi Cards Japan Inc has come to know that certain personal information of 92,408 customers has allegedly been obtained and sold to a third party illegally, the company said in a statement. The compromised data includes account numbers, names, addresses and dates of birth, but does not include PIN numbers or security codes for the affected cards, the Citigroup subsidiary said. “No unusual or suspicious credit cards transactions relating to these customers have been detected at this point,” it said. The theft of the Japanese customers’ data was not carried out by hackers, but rather by parties who had been given access to the data legitimately and abused their trust, a source familiar with the situation said.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda recalls vehicles
Honda is recalling about 1.5 million vehicles in the US to update the software on the automatic transmission to reduce the possibility of damage. The recall affects certain 4-cylinder Accord, 2007-2010 CR-V and 2005-2008 Element vehicles manufactured between 2005 and last year. The company said on Friday that without the change, the transmission’s secondary shaft bearing could be damaged when the car is shifted too quickly. Honda said that could happen when a driver tries to get the vehicle dislodged from mud or snow. Honda said it would begin sending recall notifications to customers on Aug. 31. It said that no injuries or deaths had been reported because of the problem.
ENTERTAINMENT
Movie rentals up
Americans spent more money renting home movies than buying them in the second quarter, marking only the second time that has happened in the DVD era. The big switch in consumer behavior shows the rising popularity of cheap alternatives like Netflix and Redbox and suggests people are pinching pennies in this economy. Rental revenue rose 11 percent from a year ago to US$2.06 billion, while sales of discs and digital purchases fell 15 percent to US$1.93 billion in the three months through June, according to a report released on Friday by the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), an industry consortium of studios and electronics makers. The resurgence in rentals is noticeable mainly because the DEG started including subscription plans such as Netflix’s in the rental category this year, executive director Amy Jo Smith said. Still, she said, consumer behavior was changing.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
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