SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook sues over data
Facebook Inc accused an application developer in a lawsuit of continuing to display information about users of the social-networking Web site after Facebook tried to add protections to the data. Profile Technology Ltd failed to keep its agreement to delete the Facebook user data it accessed and displayed on the ProfileEngine.com Web site, according to a complaint filed on Friday in federal court in San Jose, California. Profile Technology, based in Auckland, New Zealand, was supposed to delete the information in October 2010, but continues to “use and display out-of-date user data to this day,” Facebook said in the complaint. The information includes, among other information, users’ names, photographs and names of friends with links to data that Profile Technology stored, according to the filing.
GAMING
PlayStation 4 ‘on its way’
Sony is poised to unveil the next PlayStation game console on Feb. 20, a date that would give the Japanese electronics company a head start over Microsoft’s expected announcement of an Xbox 360 successor in June this year. Sony Corp invited journalists to an evening press event in New York. The company has not said what it plans to show off, but signs indicate that it will be the PlayStation 4. Sony would only say that it “will deliver and speak about the future PlayStation business.” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said it is a “super smart” move for Sony to pre-empt Microsoft. This way, the PlayStation 4 will get the spotlight without much competition.
BANKING
CEO declines bonus
New Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins has opted not to take a bonus for last year, saying he should “bear an appropriate degree of accountability” for the difficult year his bank endured. Jenkins, who became CEO in August last year, said he was aware of considerable speculation about his bonus, so to avoid further unnecessary public debate he decided this week that he did not want to be considered for an award on top of his base salary of £1.1 million (US$1.72 million). He was entitled to an annual bonus of up to £2.75 million. Bankers’ pay has become a political hot potato in Britain, with lawmakers from all parties demanding a crackdown on bonus payments to appease a public which has become disenfranchised with its banks following the 2008 financial crisis.
OIL
Refiners reap profit rewards
Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp, the largest US energy producers, are boosting profits with oil refineries that some analysts and investors urged them to divest as recently as last year. Earnings from processing crude into fuels such as gasoline and diesel more than made up for lagging returns from oil and natural gas exploration during the final three months of last year, Exxon and Chevron reported yesterday. Fuel refining helped propel fourth-quarter net income to a five-year high of almost US$9.95 billion for Exxon and a record US$7.25 billion for Chevron. Exxon’s full-year net income rose 9.3 percent to US$44.88 billion, just US$340 million shy of the US profit record the company set in 2008 when it raked in US$45.22 billion.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
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