ELECTRONICS
Toshiba tied to price fixing
A federal jury in San Francisco on Tuesday found that Toshiba Corp knowingly participated in a conspiracy to fix the price of LCDs sold in the US, contributing to US$87 million in damages suffered by manufacturers and consumers. However, Toshiba won’t have to pay — even after damages are tripled to US$261 million through US antitrust law — because settlements by other defendants, including Sharp, Samsung and LG, already cover the damages suffered. Toshiba still disputed the verdict. Spokeswoman Rebecca Bueno said the company had filed motions to “resolve this case in Toshiba’s favor.”
CAMERAS
Olympus fined US$63m
Japanese authorities have ordered Olympus to pay about US$63 million in back taxes and penalties, reports said yesterday, as the disgraced firm tries to recover from a loss cover-up scandal. The liability is tied to a ¥15 billion (US$188 million) advisory fee that Olympus claimed to have paid during its 2008 acquisition of British medical equipment maker Gyrus Group, the Nikkei Shimbun business daily and Jiji Press reported.
SOUTH KOREA
Household debt a risk
South Korea must act to curb household debts totaling hundreds of billions of dollars that pose a downside risk to the economy, Financial Supervisory Service Governor Kwon Hyouk-se told a seminar yesterday. Household debt stood at 857.8 trillion won (US$756 billion) at the end of March. While the growth rate had eased somewhat, the structure of the debts had worsened, Kwon said, with borrowers turning to non-bank lenders that charge higher interest rates.
TELECOMS
No expansion plans: Slim
Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim said on Tuesday he has no immediate plans for further telecommunications purchases in Europe after buying into Dutch firm KPN and Telekom Austria. Asked if he was looking to expand further in Europe after the two recent deals, Slim said: “No, no. We’re not looking for nothing now. We are going to consolidate what we’ve got.” Slim’s America Movil, which is present in roughly a dozen Latin American countries, is establishing a beachhead in Europe, where a combination of tough competition, regulatory pressure and recession in many markets has beaten down some company valuations to near decade lows.
AUTOMAKERS
Big Three post strong sales
The Big Three US automakers on Tuesday reported strong domestic sales for last month, with Chrysler and General Motors (GM) both posting double-digit increases in US sales, while Ford grew sales by 7 percent. However, for the first half of the year, Asian carmakers overall were able to pick up ground in their US rivals’ home market. Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Kia and Hyundai all posted double-digit increases, while GM only increased sales by 4.3 percent and Ford by 7 percent.
INTERNET
Google to drop iGoogle
Google said on Tuesday it was discontinuing its iGoogle page designed as Web “portal,” saying it had become less relevant in the age of the mobile Internet. The portal, which allowed users to personalize their start page, will be cut in November next year and was among a handful of products axed by the California tech giant. Among other products being eliminated was the Google Mini search service for businesses, Google Talk Chatback and Google Video.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
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
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
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San