ENTERTAINMENT
Disney’s net income grows
The Walt Disney Co said on Tuesday that net income in the first three months of the year grew 21 percent as better performance from pay-TV network ESPN and its theme parks offset a loss at the movie studio driven by the flop John Carter. Net income in the three months to March 31 rose to US$1.14 billion, or US$0.63 per share, from US$942 million, or US$0.49 per share, a year ago. Earnings came to US$0.58 per share after excluding one-time items, including a US$184 million non-cash gain related to Disney acquiring a controlling stake in Indian media company UTV. Revenue rose 6 percent to US$9.63 billion from US$9.08 billion.
AVIATION
EasyJet cuts losses
EasyJet said seasonal first-half losses narrowed, helped by cost-cutting initiatives and minimal weather-related disruption, and that it expected second-half revenues to grow by up to 5 percent. Europe’s second-largest low-cost carrier yesterday posted a pretax loss of £112 million (US$180.61 million) in the six months to the end of March, 27 percent lower than the loss it made in the same period a year earlier. The company said revenues increased 16 percent to £1.46 billion, while passengers flown grew 5.4 percent to 25.2 million, as it continued to grow its share of the short-haul business travel market.
INSURANCE
Allianz’s profit soars
German insurance giant Allianz, Europe’s market leader, said yesterday its net profit had soared nearly 60 percent in the first quarter, according to preliminary results. After-tax profit surpassed 1.4 billion euros (US$1.81 billion) while operating profit topped 2.3 billion euros — a rise of about 40 percent on the same period last year. The sharp increase in profits was based in part on a particularly weak first quarter of last year, during which natural catastrophes, including the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, weighed heavily on results.
COMMODITIES
Glencore: demand strong
Commodities group Glencore International PLC says demand for raw materials is strong, with production of Mutanda copper up 46 percent and Kazzinc gold up 24 percent year-on-year. The Swiss-based company’s operational update yesterday on its first quarter included figures on raw materials extracted — but not profits — and it said that “physical demand for commodities remains broadly healthy across the globe.” The company also headed into its first shareholder meeting yesterday in Switzerland amid calls from anti-corruption campaigners for more transparency on its deals in the resource-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo. Glencore reported in March a 7 percent rise in full-year profit to US$4.06 billion for last year, citing rising prices for key raw materials and strong demand in developing countries.
PHARMACEUTICALS
HGS rejects takeover offer
GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) has tabled an offer to take over US drug maker Human Genome Sciences Inc (HGS) which values the target at nearly US$2.6 billion. GlaxoSmithKline, which has profit-sharing agreements with HGS on three drugs, said yesterday it is offering US$13 per share for the company. The offer was rejected by HGS management. GSK said its offer was 81 percent more than the HGS share price on April 18, before HGS disclosed the earlier private offer. The tender offer will remain open for 20 days.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to