ELECTRONICS
LG’s Q2 profit misses mark
LG Display Co, the world’s second-largest maker of flat panels, posted second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates due to slower consumer demand for screens used in personal computers and televisions. The company’s net income — excluding minority interest — was 105.7 billion won (US$94 million) in the three months ended last month, compared with a 111.2 billion won loss a year earlier, the Seoul-based company said in a statement yesterday. The result compares with the average 205.9 billion won profit estimated by 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
RETAIL
Carrefour offsets weak EU
Global retailer Carrefour SA has said rising sales in Latin America and Asia helped offset shrinking revenue in Europe in the second quarter. The French-based company reported quarterly sales of 20.46 billion euros (US$ 26.8 billion), down 0.6 percent from 21.7 billion euros in the same period a year ago. Carrefour said in a statement it made 41 billion euros in sales in the first half of the year, compared with 43.7 billion last year. Carrefour blamed the weak performance on bad weather and Europe’s “economic environment.”
TECHNOLOGY
IBM income slips on layoffs
IBM Corp on Wednesday said its second-quarter net income fell 17 percent as revenue fell and it absorbed layoff costs. Net income came to US$3.23 billion, or US$2.91 per share, down from US$3.88 billion, or US$3.34 per share, a year earlier. Excluding a US$1 billion charge related to layoffs, IBM’s adjusted earnings came to US$3.91 per share. Revenue dropped 3 percent annually to US$24.92 billion, below the US$25.35 billion forecast by analysts.
INTERNET
EBay posts Q3 guidance
EBay Inc issued a revenue forecast for the current quarter that missed analysts’ estimates as economic weakness in Europe and Asia restricts growth for the online marketplace and payments provider. Third-quarter sales will be between US$3.85 billion and US$3.95 billion, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Analysts were projecting revenue of US$3.97 billion, according to the average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Second-quarter revenue came in at US$3.88 billion, just shy of analysts’ US$3.89 billion forecast.
TELECOMS
Ericsson sees strong quarter
Wireless equipment maker Ericsson AB said second-quarter earnings grew 26 percent to 1.5 billion kronor (US$227 million) compared with the same period a year ago thanks to higher gross margins and lower operating costs. The Stockholm-based company said sales for the quarter were flat at 55.3 billion kronor due to currency fluctuations. CEO Hans Vestberg yesterday said that the company benefited from capacity projects in Europe and North America, while Asian markets posed a challenge as activity declined.
SOFTWARE
SAP beats slowdown in Q2
Business software maker SAP AG said net profit grew 10 percent in the second quarter to 724 million euros (US$948 million) despite Asia’s economic slowdown. SAP’s net profit of 0.61 euros a share fell just short of the 0.62 euros per share average estimate compiled by FactSet. SAP yesterday said cost discipline helped it overcome a 7 percent slide in sales in its Asia-Pacific-Japan business. It said slowing growth in China was deterring businesses in the region from investing in new software and computing services.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by