SOFTWARE
Google to buy Quickoffice
Google is buying Quickoffice, the maker of a widely used mobile app for working on documents created in Microsoft’s programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations. The deal announced on Tuesday gives Google Inc more tools to undercut Microsoft Corp, as more people get work done on smartphones and tablet computers. Quickoffice makes those devices compatible with Microsoft Office, even if the software suite is not installed on them. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
ELECTRONICS
Sony bosses shun bonuses
Seven Sony executives, including chairman Howard Stringer and president Kazuo Hirai, are giving up their performance-based bonus pay. The Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment company said yesterday that they were forgoing bonuses for the fiscal year through March because of the massive challenges to turn around the business. Sony did not disclose how much money was being returned. The company paid ￥224 million (US$2.8 million) in such bonuses for the fiscal year through March 2011 to eight executives.
FAST FOOD
Burger King targets Russia
Burger King is expanding its empire overseas, this time in Russia. The world’s second-largest hamburger chain said on Tuesday it had reached a deal with its franchise operator in the country to open several hundred new locations in the next few years. There are currently 57 Burger King outlets in Russia. The deal continues the Miami-based chain’s focus on expanding in emerging markets at a time when the fast-food industry is becoming increasingly saturated in the US. In the past year, 80 percent of Burger King’s new openings have been in the region encompassing Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
BANKING
German, Austrian ratings cut
Moody’s Investors Service cut the credit ratings of six German banking groups, including Commerzbank AG, and Austria’s three largest banks, such as Erste Group Bank AG, yesterday, saying they face risks if the eurozone crisis deepens. Moody’s said German lenders face risks to the quality of their assets if the eurozone crisis deepens or the global economy slows more. For the Austrian banks, Moody’s said vulnerabilities from operating conditions in Central and Eastern Europe were the reasons for the ratings cut.
ENVIRONMENT
Firms eye ‘greener’ plastic
Five leading US global companies, including Coca-Cola and Ford, on Tuesday unveiled a joint effort to develop 100 percent plant-based plastics in their products, cutting the use of fossil fuels. Coca-Cola, Ford, Heinz, Nike and Procter & Gamble said they were launching a working group focused on speeding up the development and use of 100 percent plant-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic. PET is a durable, lightweight plastic. All five companies use PET based on fossil fuels such as oil in bottles, apparel, footwear, and automotive fabric and carpet.
MALAYSIA
Weaker demand hits exports
The trade ministry reported flat export growth for April yesterday as weaker demand in the trade-dependent economy’s key European and US markets offset continued strong shipments to China. Malaysia exported 57.7 billion ringgit (US$18.2 billion) of goods in April, just shy of the 57.8 billion ringgit reported in April of last year.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
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