INTERNET
Facebook in Yahoo suit
Facebook on Tuesday warned potential investors that a patent lawsuit against the company by Internet pioneer Yahoo could deliver a significant blow to its business. The world’s leading online social network amended initial public offering (IPO) paperwork with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to include the Yahoo case among risks to the company’s bottom line. Yahoo filed suit against Facebook in a US District Court in California court on March 12, accusing the startup of infringing on 10 of its patents in several areas including advertising, privacy and messaging.
FINANCE
Wiretaps in Goldman case
A US judge said on Tuesday he will allow prosecutors to play recordings of wiretapped phone conversations in the insider trading trial of former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta. Judge Jed Rakoff also ruled that Gupta’s attorneys can have another two hours to question current Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein in a parallel civil lawsuit against Gupta by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
MINING
Rio Tinto scraps smelter
Resources giant Rio Tinto and a Malaysian partner have scrapped plans for a US$2 billion aluminum smelter in Borneo over problems agreeing power supply terms, its local partner said. Cahya Mata Sarawak, which owns 40 percent of the Sarawak Aluminium Company smelter development in Sarawak state, announced the termination late on Tuesday in a filing with the Malaysian stock exchange.
AUTOMAKERS
GM buys 7% of Peugeot
US auto giant General Motors has acquired a 7 percent stake in PSA Peugeot Citroen after the French company raised 1 billion euros (US$1.32 billion) via a share issue, a statement said on Tuesday. The deal, agreed as part of a wider technical tie-up, means GM is the second-largest shareholder in Peugeot after the Peugeot family, which has about 25 percent of the stock and nearly 38 percent of the voting rights.
ENTERTAINMENT
Sony trying for EMI deal
A group of investors led by Sony has offered concessions to the EU to get approval for its deal to buy part of iconic British music company EMI, the bloc’s competition regulator said on Tuesday. Sony/ATV, a joint venture between Sony Corp and the Michael Jackson estate, and a group of other investors said in November that they will buy the publishing arm of EMI Music for US$2.2 billion. The European Commission did not give details on the concessions Sony and the others had offered, but they could include the sale of certain units or a commitment to change certain business practices.
UNITED STATES
Consumer confidence steady
Americans’ rosy outlook about the US economy remains resilient as they focus on the good in the barrage of conflicting economic news. The Conference Board said on Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index fell slightly to 70.2. That’s down from a revised 71.6 in February — the highest level it’s been since the same month last year. Consumer confidence has made a recovery since it fell to an all-time low of 25.3 in February 2009, but the March reading is below the 90 reading that indicates a healthy economy. The index has not been near 90 since December 2007.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six