SOFTWARE
Oracle to pay US$2m fine
Software maker Oracle Corp has agreed to pay US$2 million to settle US federal civil charges of failing to prevent secret payments in its sales operations in India. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement on Thursday. The commission said Oracle violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by allowing its Indian subsidiary to secretly set aside money that went to phony local vendors. Oracle ran the risk of the secret funds being used for bribes, the commission said. The agency said the violations occurred from 2005 to 2007. It said the subsidiary sold software licenses and services to the Indian government and kept some of the sale proceeds off Oracle’s books.
STOCKS
Facebook hits new low
Facebook’s stock plunged to a new low on Thursday after the expiration of a ban that had prevented some early investors and insiders from dumping millions of additional shares they own in the social-networking leader. Facebook’ stock traded as low as US$19.69 before bouncing back slightly. The shares closed on Thursday at US$19.87, down US$1.33, or more than 6 percent. Groupon’s stock also hit another low, days after the online deals company issued a lackluster quarterly report. Groupon Inc fell US$0.32, or 6 percent, to close on Thursday at US$5. Earlier it hit US$4.97, its lowest level since its initial public offering in November last year. The stock’s IPO price was US$20, so it has lost 75 percent of its value.
TELECOMS
DOJ limits Verizon
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) unveiled limits on Thursday on Verizon’s effort to expand its wireless entertainment footprint, amid worries the firm was building a monopoly with other cable operators. After a seven-month review, the agency approved the cellphone and cable giant’s US$3.6 billion deal to buy wireless spectrum from major cable television rivals Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. However, regulators placed limits on the four companies’ plans to cooperate in their respective markets as part of the deal by bundling their products together. It also said Verizon, the country’s largest wireless phone carrier, would divest some of the spectrum to smaller competitor T-Mobile.
EUROZONE
Current account surplus up
The eurozone’s current account surplus grew to 12.7 billion euros (US$15.7 billion) in June from 10.3 billion euros the previous month, European Central Bank data showed yesterday. The current account on the balance of payments, which includes imports and exports in goods and services plus all other current transfers, is a closely tracked indicator of the ability of a country or area to pay its way in the world. Over the 12 months to June, the current account showed a surplus of 49.9 billion euros, compared with a deficit of 18.8 billion euros a year earlier, the data showed.
ALUMINUM
Chalco posts first half loss
China’s largest aluminum producer, Chalco, posted a first-half net loss of 3.25 billion yuan (US$512 million) yesterday, reflecting lower aluminum and alumina prices amid a slowing domestic economy. In an interim earnings statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the company said revenue for the six months ended June 30 rose 9 percent to 71.70 billion yuan. The figures were unaudited and the company is expected to release its final first-half earnings report on Aug. 24.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the