COMPUTERS
IBM income jumps 7%
Information technology giant IBM said on Thursday that its net income jumped 7 percent last year, driven by surging business in dynamic emerging economies. Net income for the year hit US$15.9 billion on revenues of US$106.9 billion, also up 7 percent for the year. Earnings per share (EPS) rose 13 percent to US$13.06, the ninth straight year EPS scored double-digit growth, the company said. The company said revenues in the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — increased 10 percent.
RETAIL
IKEA profits up 10.3%
IKEA says its profit jumped 10.3 percent last year as the Swedish furniture retailer increased sales despite economic uncertainty in some of its key markets. IKEA said yesterday it made a net profit of 2.97 billion euros (US$3.81 billion) in the year ended Aug. 31, while revenue grew 6.9 percent to 25.17 billion euros. CEO Mikael Ohlsson said IKEA is examining the details of recent legislation that will open up India to foreign companies and allow large single-brand retailers to own 100 percent of their stores there.
CREDIT
American Express income up
American Express Co, the biggest credit-card issuer by purchases, reported a 12 percent increase in fourth-quarter net income as card spending reached a record. Net income was US$1.19 billion, or US$1.01 a share, compared with US$1.06 billion, or US$0.88, a year earlier, the New York-based lender said on Thursday. “Cardmembers spent a record amount on their American Express cards, continuing a trend that has translated into overall share gains during the last two years,” CEO Kenneth Chenault said in the statement. “The overall recovery in the US remains uneven and the environment in Europe continues to pose challenges for the global economy.”
AUSTRIA
Fifty-year bonds issued
Austria has issued 50-year bonds for the first time in its history, the federal financing agency said on Thursday. The offering raised 2 billion euros (US$2.58 billion) with the yield at 3.837 percent, slightly higher than the 3.434 percent rate for 3 billion euros’ of 10-year bonds issued the same day, the state agency said. The move comes after Austria last week lost its cherished “AAA” rating from Standard & Poor’s, although it retains the top credit rank with fellow rating agencies Fitch and Moody’s.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Merck pays up over Vioxx
Pharmaceutical giant Merck said on Thursday it has agreed to pay up to C$36.8 million (US$36.3 million) to resolve all suits brought against it in Canada over its former hit painkiller Vioxx. Merck voluntarily withdrew the popular medicine, known by its generic name Rofecoxib, from the market in 2004 after interim clinical trials linked the drug to a higher risk of heart attacks and stroke. Since then Merck has faced numerous lawsuits over the medicine from customers.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford workers get bonuses
Ford is giving pay raises and bonuses to about 20,000 workers, mainly in the US and Canada. Letters sent to workers last week say they will get 2.7 percent raises on April 1. They will also get bonuses based on performance. Spokeswoman Marcey Evans says the raises are needed to keep pay competitive with other Fortune 100 companies. Ford Motor Co made US$6.6 billion in the first three quarters of last year.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the