INTERNET
Amazon beats forecasts
Amazon.com Inc’s quarterly earnings beat Wall Street’s most bullish expectations as the world’s largest Internet retailer brought costs under control and saw early success selling more digital products through its new Kindle Fire tablet. Amazon reported net income fell to US$130 million or US$0.28 per diluted share in the first quarter, versus US$201 million or US$0.44 a year ago, but that was far above the average Wall Street forecast for US$0.07 a share. First-quarter revenue of US$13.18 billion, up 34 percent from a year earlier, was ahead of Wall Street estimates for US$12.9 billion. Operating income was US$192 million, compared with US$322 million a year earlier.
AUTOMAKERS
Daimler Q1 profit rose 20%
Record sales of its luxury Mercedes brand and a boost from its financial services arm helped automaker Daimler AG increase net profit by 20 percent to 1.42 billion euros (US$1.88 billion) in the first quarter. The increase came despite a slip in profitability at Mercedes, where the company spent more on new models, which should drive future profits, and on increased production capacity. Global revenues rose 9 percent to 27.01 billion euros and the company sold 9 percent more vehicles worldwide, at 502,086.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda earnings jump 61%
Honda Motor Co’s January-March profit jumped 61 percent as the Japanese automaker sold more cars and motorcycles in a turnaround from last year’s disasters. It forecast record global sales of 4.3 million vehicles for this fiscal year. Honda reported net profit of ¥71.5 billion (US$882.7 million) for the fiscal fourth quarter, up from ¥44.5 billion a year earlier. Quarterly sales improved 8.7 percent to ¥2.41 trillion, mainly because of rising sales in Japan and North America.
ELECTRONICS
Sharp expects more losses
Sharp Corp forecast a wider-than-estimated full-year net loss as falling TV prices prompted the company to turn to Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) for investment. The maker of Aquos televisions will probably post a ¥30 billion net loss for the year ending March 31, compared with a ¥376 billion loss a year earlier, Sharp said in a statement yesterday. Sharp’s LCD and solar-panel businesses will each lose about ¥10 billion in the current fiscal year, while the audio-visual and communication equipment unit may lose about ¥5 billion, it said.
COFFEEHOUSES
Starbucks net profit up 18%
Starbucks Corp perked up its net income by 18 percent in its fiscal second quarter, as more customers visited its cafes around the world. The Seattle-based coffee chain said it earned US$309.9 million, or US$0.40 per share, for the three months ended April 1. That’s compared with a profit of US$261.6 million, or US$0.34 per share, a year ago. Revenue for the latest quarter rose to US$3.2 billion, from US$2.79 billion a year ago.
ADVERTISING
WPP upbeat on Q1
The global advertising giant WPP yesterday said first-quarter profits were ahead of the same period one year ago, thanks to a strong performance in Asia Pacific and Latin America. Revenue increased 7.6 percent to £2.39 billion (US$3.9 billion) in the quarter, compared with £2.22 billion a year earlier, WPP said in a trading update. Like-for-like revenues — stripping out the impact of acquisitions, disposals and currency movements — rose 4 percent from a year earlier.
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