TECHNOLOGY
TI to cut 1,700 jobs
Chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc (TI) said on Wednesday that it would eliminate about 1,700 jobs as it trims spending on its wireless business. The cuts will reduce TI’s staff positions by almost 5 percent. The company expects the job cuts and other changes will save about US$450 million per year by the end of next year. The Dallas company will take US$325 million in one-time charges connected to the moves. Most will come in the current quarter. The company had 34,759 employees at the end of last year.
COMMODITIES
GrainCorp rejects buyout
Australian agribusiness GrainCorp yesterday rejected a A$2.68 billion (US$2.78 billion) all-cash takeover offer from US food giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), holding out for more money. Leading agricultural commodities trader ADM made its indicative and non-binding bid last month, saying it was prepared to pay A$11.75 for each GrainCorp share. In response, the Australian firm said it had decided that the ADM offer was not enough, undervaluing its assets and competitive advantages in handling and processing wheat, barley and canola.
BANKING
China’s bad loans climb
Chinese banks’ bad loans increased for a fourth straight quarter, the longest streak of deterioration since the data became available in 2004, highlighting pressures on profit growth as the economy weakens. Non-performing loans rose by 22.4 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30 to 478.8 billion yuan, the China Banking Regulatory Commission said in a statement yesterday. Bad loans increased at all types of institutions, including state-owned lenders, rural banks and foreign banks, it said.
UNITED KINGDOM
Moody’s reviewing rating
Moody’s announced on Wednesday that it would review Britain’s “Aaa” rating early next year, saying the country’s strengths were challenged by weak growth and the eurozone crisis. In its yearly credit report on Britain, the agency said its review would hinge in part on the government’s upcoming Autumn Statement, its mid-term economic review. In February, Moody’s issued a negative outlook for the sovereign rating, a warning that Britain’s triple-A grade could be lowered in the medium term.
FINANCE
Fed mulls new stimulus
The US Federal Reserve is mulling additional asset purchases next year to boost jobs amid a fragile economy, the minutes of a policy meeting released on Wednesday showed. With the current US$45 billion a month “Operation Twist” asset adjustment program scheduled to end next month, the minutes suggested that the Fed was ready to go ahead with more outright bond purchases, aimed at pushing long-term interest rates lower.
AUTOMAKERS
Opel, Peugeot deal dropped
General Motors (GM) has scrapped plans to merge its troubled German unit Opel with PSA Peugeot Citroen because of the French carmaker’s financial woes, a news report said on Wednesday. “GM gave up in early November on the merger plan between Opel and PSA Peugeot Citroen’s auto division,” French financial newspaper La Tribune said, citing “a well-informed French source.” Instead of a merger, the carmakers would pursue a more limited partnership in four specific areas, which they had already announced on Oct. 24, La Tribune said.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained