INVESTMENTS
Olympus stake sold: GIC
The Government of Singapore Investment Corp, (GIC) which held about a 2 percent stake in Olympus Corp, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday that it disposed of “almost all” of its investments in the Japanese camera maker. “Media reports have stated GIC owns 2 percent of Olympus and speculated on losses arising from such holdings,” GIC said. “The majority of the investment was made in the midst of the global financial crisis. GIC disposed of almost all of its investments on first suspicion of possible wrongdoing in Olympus. GIC currently has only an insignificant holding under a portfolio managed by an external fund manager.” Olympus soon plans to submit corrections to 20 years of its financial statements to the Japanese government’s financial bureau, the Mainichi Shimbun reported yesterday, quoting anonymous sources.
RETAIL
Bookstore denies buyout
Barnes & Noble Inc, the largest US bookstore chain, said there was “no truth” to speculation that Liberty Media Corp is preparing to buy the rest of the retailer. Robert Routh, a New York-based analyst for Phoenix Partners Group, wrote in a research note yesterday that Liberty might be setting up a US$1.5 billion credit facility to help fund a purchase of Barnes & Noble. Liberty, controlled by billionaire John Malone, invested US$204 million in the book retailer in August after dropping its offer to acquire the chain. While Liberty could raise money for an acquisition, a more likely scenario is that it is looking to restructure the ownership of the Starz LLC unit, Richard Greenfield, an analyst at BTIG LLC in New York, said in a note yesterday.
ELECTRONICS
Sales of Xbox 360 surge
Microsoft Corp said retailers sold 393,000 Xbox 360 consoles last month, up 21 percent from a year earlier, as the industry shrugged off a slump and posted its first gain in five months. Sales of new titles rose 2.7 percent to US$621.3 million from a year earlier, New York-based NPD Group said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. Electronic Arts Inc’s Battlefield 3 was the top-selling game for the month. Console sales rose 5.6 percent to US$295.6 million, NPD said. The gains mitigate a prolonged industry slump this year that came amid a weak slate of titles, NPD said. Total video-game sales, including hardware, software and accessories, rose 2.5 percent to US$1.05 billion. Citing NPD Group data, Microsoft said it was the only console maker to show double-digit percentage growth over year-earlier sales. Microsoft sold 325,000 Xbox 360s in October last year.
AUTOMAKERS
Hyundai mulls US plant
Hyundai is considering building another plant in the US to meet rising demand for the South Korean company’s vehicles, its top US executive said on Friday. Sales are up 20.5 percent so far this year while its market share has jumped to 5.2 percent from 2.98 percent in 2008, when auto sales collapsed following the financial crisis that pushed General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy. John Krafcik, president and chief executive officer of US operations, said Hyundai’s US dealers could easily sell more vehicles, but are hampered by shortages of the company’s most popular vehicles. Krafcik said Hyundai has been able to make adjustments in its Alabama assembly plant so it could build about 10 percent more vehicles this year than it did last year.
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last