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.”
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
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
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks