RETAIL
Wal-Mart stores reopen
US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc said yesterday it has reopened stores in southwest China that were temporarily closed after they were found to be selling pork falsely labeled as organic. The 13 stores in the city of Chongqing resumed operations after a 15-day closure for “internal enhancements,” Wal-Mart said in a statement. The company has opened inspection laboratories in each store in the city to improve “food management” and packaged meat will be clearly labeled to show if it is “pollution-free” or “organic.” Wal-Mart will also hold “afternoon tea sessions” with customers to gather feedback, while employees will be trained in Chinese laws and regulations.
TECHNOLOGY
Oracle buying RightNow
Oracle Corp said on Monday that it is buying RightNow Technologies Inc for about US$1.5 billion so it can offer a broader range of software and services that help businesses manage customer service. Oracle is offering US$43 a share for the tech service company. That is a 19.6 percent premium over RightNow’s closing price of US$35.96 on Friday. Oracle expects to complete the deal by late this year or early next year.
ELECTRONICS
TI forecasts lower Q4 sales
Texas Instruments Inc (TI), the largest maker of analog semiconductors, forecast lower fourth-quarter sales than estimated, indicating that demand for electronic components remains sluggish. Revenues will be US$3.26 billion to US$3.54 billion in the period, the Dallas-based company said on Monday in a statement. Profit in the fourth quarter, including costs related to the acquisition of National Semiconductor, will be US$0.28 to US$0.36 a share. The company said its third-quarter profit fell to US$601 million, or US$0.51 a share, from US$859 million, or US$0.71, a year earlier. Revenues declined 7.3 percent to US$3.47 billion.
BANKING
Deutsche Bank’s profits rise
Deutsche Bank AG said yesterday that it made 777 million euros (US$1.1 billion) in net profit in a turbulent third quarter, beating analysts’ estimates. The third quarter earnings figure contrasts with a loss of 1.2 billion euros in last year’s third quarter, when the bank took a 2.3 billion euro writedown related to consolidating its acquisition of Postbank. The bank also wrote down 228 billion euros worth of shaky Greek bonds, whose value has fallen during the eurozone’s government debt crisis.
ENTERTAINMENT
Netflix earnings rise
Netflix Inc’s third-quarter earnings rose 65 percent year-on-year to US$62.5 million, or US$1.16 a share, even though the video subscription service suffered the biggest customer losses in its history. The company ended last month with 23.8 million US subscribers, down about 800,000 from June. Management on Monday expected to gain US subscribers in the current quarter.
ENTERTAINMENT
Zynga IPO coming soon
Zynga Inc is planning to price its initial public offering (IPO) and have its shares begin trading the week before the US Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 24, two sources said on Monday. The sources cautioned that the social gaming company’s plan has not been finalized and could change. Zynga’s debut is among a clutch of highly anticipated dot-com IPOs. Groupon launched its own roadshow this week and hopes to price its shares early next month.
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