INDUSTRY
Steelmaker to take hit
German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG says it is taking a 3.6 billion euros (US$4.66 billion) hit on the value of its Steel Americas unit.
The Essen-based company says the writedown follows a reassessment prompted by efforts to sell the unit’s plants in the US and Brazil. The announcement came as ThyssenKrupp on Monday posted heavy losses for the fiscal year ending on Sept. 30. The company says it made a net loss attributable to shareholders of 4.7 billion euros and is canceling its dividend for the 2011 to 2012 period. ThyssenKrupp had recorded a loss of 1.3 billion euros for the previous fiscal year.
TECHNOLOGY
Motorola cools on S Korea
Motorola Mobility on Monday confirmed that it is shutting down most of its operations in South Korea as part of a move to consolidate research after being bought by Google this year. “The changes in Korea reflect our plans to consolidate our global R&D efforts to foster collaboration, and to focus more attention on markets where we are best positioned to compete effectively,” Motorola said in an e-mail response to reporters. California-based Google said in August that it would lay off about 4,000 employees at Motorola, which it purchased in a deal valued at US$12.5 billion, in order to return the company to profitability.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford to update software
Ford will update software on next year’s Escapes and Fusions to stop their engines from overheating, a problem that has caused a small number of fires. Reports of nine fires prompted the automaker to recall more than 89,000 of the SUVS and midsize cars in the US and Canada last month. No injuries were reported and only models with 1.6-liter turbocharged engines were recalled. Ford offered free loaner cars until it figured out what caused the fires. It was the fourth recall in four months for the new Escape, a top seller in the competitive market for small SUVs. Next year’s version has had problems with coolant leaks, cracked fuel lines and carpet padding since it started selling this spring. The Fusion has been recalled twice.
FOOD
McDonald’s sales rebound
McDonald’s Corp said on Monday that a key sales figure rebounded last month, as US customers snapped up the world’s biggest hamburger chain’s breakfast offerings and limited-time Cheddar Bacon Onion sandwiches. The increase follows a decline in October, the first drop in McDonald’s key monthly sales gauge in nearly a decade. The company, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, said that its global sales at restaurants open at least 13 months rose 2.4 percent for the month ended Nov. 30. Systemwide sales, which includes sales at all restaurants, rose 3.2 percent.
BEVERAGES
Diageo ends tequila talks
British drinks group Diageo said yesterday that it had ended talks with JP Y Compania and Lanceros on a possible takeover of the Cuervo brand of tequila. Discussions “relating to the future of the Cuervo brand have ended,” a Diageo statement said. “Both parties will now work to ensure the orderly termination of the current distribution agreement, including transitional arrangements, at the end of June 2013,” it added. Cuervo is distilled in Mexico on land given to Jose Antonio de Cuervo by the 18th-century Spanish King Ferdinand VI.
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