FINANCE
Credit Suisse ruled liable
Credit Suisse Group AG was ruled by a judge to be liable for all damages that could be awarded to noteholders suing the bank over fraud at National Century Financial Enterprises Inc, a figure investors’ lawyers put at more than US$2 billion. US District Judge James Graham on Friday said that because New York law governs apportionment of fault in the case, Credit Suisse will be liable for 100 percent of former chief executive officer Lance Poulsen’s share of damages. Noteholders claim that the bank — the placement agent — knew or should have known of a US$2.9 billion fraud that led to National Century’s collapse in 2002.
TECHNOLOGY
Smartphone sales boom
Global smartphone sales soared last year, taking a huge slice of a mobile phone market that was otherwise flat, survey data showed on Friday. A report by researcher IDC showed a 44 percent jump in smartphone sales for the year, with 712 million units sold. That accounted for 45.5 percent of all mobile phone shipments. The global market for all mobile phones grew just 1.2 percent to 1.7 billion units, IDC said. It added that Samsung Electronics Co extended its dominance in both smartphones and overall mobile phones. The South Korean giant captured 29 percent of the smartphone market — compared with Apple Inc’s 21.8 percent — and 23 percent of the overall market, ahead of Nokia Oyj’s 17.9 percent. A big surge also came from Chinese manufacturers Huawei (華為) and ZTE (中興), which broke into the top ranks of smartphone vendors thanks to growth in emerging markets, IDC said. Huawei grabbed 4.9 percent of the smartphone market, making it the third-largest, and ZTE was in fifth place with 4.3 percent share.
FINANCE
Fitch cuts Cypriot bonds
Fitch Ratings Ltd on Friday cut the Cypriot government’s bond rating by two notches to “B” with a negative outlook, saying that the cost of bailing out national banks is likely to be higher than previously thought. While Fitch believes that the eurozone country will agree a bailout deal with the EU and IMF, it said uncertainty over bank recapitalization and the depth and duration of its recession increased uncertainty. Fitch said it now estimates the cost of bailing out all of Cyprus’ banks at 10 billion euros (US$13.5 billion), which would mean the country needs a bailout package of roughly 17 billion euros. This would push up Cyprus’ debt to 140 percent of GDP this year, Fitch said. This is significantly higher than Fitch’s previous estimate of peak debt of 120 percent of GDP.
AVIATION
Lufthansa plans layoffs
Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s plane maintenance division, the world’s largest, plans to eliminate about 650 jobs by 2015 as part of a program to generate 1.5 billion euros (US$2.02 billion) in savings. Employees at the Lufthansa Technik unit will be offered buyout packages and early retirements as part of the cutback, the Hamburg-based division said in a statement. Lufthansa began the reorganization effort almost a year ago to improve margins. The strategy included cutting 3,500 administrative jobs and 1,000 positions in catering unit, as well as bundling EU routes that are not based at its main Frankfurt and Munich hubs into the Germanwings low-cost brand.
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