ELECTRONICS
Best Buy CEO quits
Best Buy chief executive Brian Dunn resigned on Tuesday after the embattled consumer electronics chain launched an internal investigation into his “personal conduct.” Best Buy announced it was conducting the probe late on Tuesday afternoon after initially saying the departure was a “mutual decision.” However, the company would not give any specifics on the circumstances surrounding the investigation of Dunn, a 28-year Best Buy veteran who had been chief executive since 2009 said in a statement that he was leaving the firm in the position “for a strong future.” Best Buy has not disclosed the terms of Dunn’s severance package, but his annual compensation for fiscal 2010, the latest figure available, was worth about US$5 million.
INSURANCE
AIG eyes real-estate market
American International Group (AIG), the giant US insurer bailed out at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis, is looking to get back into the real-estate market, the Wall Street Journal reported. The newspaper said on Tuesday that AIG, which has been selling off trophy properties in order to pay back the US government loans which kept it afloat, plans fresh investments in the US from later this year. Formerly the world’s largest insurance group, the company received a US$180 billion government bailout in 2008 to save it from catastrophic failure after the sub-prime home loan collapse threatened to bring down the whole financial system. Last month, the US Department of the Treasury said it had successfully sold US$6 billion of its shares in AIG, cutting its overall stake to 70 percent from 77 percent.
MYANMAR
Tokyo to help set up bourse
The government of this resource-rich nation is looking to establish a securities exchange with the help of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and Daiwa Securities Group as it hunts for foreign investors after decades of isolation. Daiwa and the TSE announced their plans to establish an exchange with the Central Bank of Myanmar in a statement yesterday. They did not provide details, but a Japanese source with knowledge of the matter said they were aiming to launch the bourse in 2015. News of the exchange follows historic by-elections on April 1 which saw Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy secure landslide victories, prompting moves to relax Western sanctions amid intense investor interest. Myanmar, the TSE and Daiwa Institute of Research plan to sign a memorandum of understanding about the establishment of the bourse next month, according to the Japanese source.
BANKING
European banks eye recovery
HSBC Holdings PLC, Europe’s biggest bank, said there was a “glimmer” of light for European bank earnings as it upgraded the industry to overweight for the first time in four years. European bank earnings may have bottomed out as long as the region’s economy does not contract by more than 2 percent this year, HSBC analyst Peter Sullivan wrote to clients yesterday. “The forces that have depressed earnings — deleveraging, increased capital requirements and loan-loss provisions — are beginning to abate,” Sullivan wrote. “At these valuation levels it will not take much good news at all to spark a reassessment and one possible catalyst is signs that earnings are stabilizing, which could well happen over the next quarter or two.”
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI