SOFTWARE
Google adding IBM patents
Google on Wednesday confirmed that it has added more IBM patents to its technology arsenal as smartphone rivals increasingly battle in courts over innovations. Google bought 188 patents and 29 patent applications related to mobile phones from IBM but did not disclose how much it paid. Last year, IBM sold Google 2,000 or so patents ranging from mobile software to computer hardware and processors. Google has been strengthening its patent portfolio as the fight for dominance in the booming smartphone market increasingly involves lawsuits claiming infringement of patented technology. It last year transferred a set of patents to smartphone titan HTC Corp (宏達電) to help the Taiwan-based company in an intellectual property clash with iPhone maker Apple.
TELECOMS
Verizon’s iPhone sales soar
Verizon Wireless, the largest US mobile carrier, sold 4.2 million Apple Inc iPhones in the fourth quarter, more than doubling from the third quarter, said Fran Shammo, finance chief of the company’s parent. The demand suggests Verizon Wireless is winning an increasing share of new iPhone users, after gaining rights to offer the handset to its subscribers last year. In the third quarter, Verizon added 2 million customers for the device, trailing the 2.7 million iPhone activations at AT&T Inc, which has offered the handset since 2007.
AVIATION
JAL reportedly planning IPO
Japan Airlines Co (JAL), the carrier that exited bankruptcy last year, is planning an initial public offering (IPO) that may raise as much as ¥1 trillion (US$13 billion) as early as September, two people familiar with the matter said. The government-backed fund that holds about 97 percent of JAL voting rights and other investors are considering selling ¥500 billion to ¥1 trillion of shares, the sources said. Taro Namba, a JAL spokesman, declined to comment on the size of the planned sale. Nomura Holdings Inc and Daiwa Securities Group will lead the offering, Namba said.
RETAIL
German sales drop
The Federal Statistical Office says German retail sales dropped unexpectedly in the early Christmas shopping season in November. The agency yesterday reported that sales were down 0.9 percent during the month according to seasonally adjusted data, following a 0.2 percent drop in October. According to provisional data, retail sales were up 0.8 percent in November over the same month the year before. Based on the first 11 months of the year, the agency says overall retail sales for 2011 are expected to be 1.1 to 1.3 percent higher than the year before.
PHILIPPINES
Bonds sold at 5% yield
The government has sold US$1.5 billion worth of 25-year dollar global bonds as it boosts spending to rev up the economy. The Department of Finance yesterday said the bonds were priced at a 5 percent yield. Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima says they are pleased to have once again extended the country’s maturity profile while achieving the lowest yield for the new offering. The proceeds will help boost spending on much-needed projects to spur economic growth. Officials announced this week that 142 billion pesos (US$3.2 billion) worth of projects, including roads, classrooms and harvest facilities will be implemented beginning this 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