TELECOMS
Telefonica to buy E-Plus
Spain’s Telefonica plans to buy German mobile unit E-Plus from Dutch telecom company Royal KPN NV for 5 billion euros (US$6.58 billion) plus shares, a deal that would create Germany’s biggest cellphone operator in terms of customers. The proposed deal announced yesterday would bring together E-Plus, currently Germany’s No. 3 operator with 23.4 million customers, and O2 — the fourth-biggest, which is already owned by Telefonica and has 19.3 million customers. The deal is subject to shareholder and antitrust approval. The companies expect the transaction to close in the middle of next year.
HOUSING
US home resales down
US home resales unexpectedly fell last month after two straight months of hefty increases, but a surge in prices to a five-year high suggested the housing market recovery remained on course. The National Association of Realtors said on Monday home sales fell 1.2 percent from a year ago to 5.08 million units. Still, the sales pace was the second highest for any month since November 2009. Meanwhile, the median price for a previously owned home soared 13.5 percent from a year ago to US$214,200, the highest since June 2008.
INTERNET
Cross-border shopping up
A study released on Monday showed that Internet-powered shopping across national borders has created “modern spice routes” holding wealth for local merchants who tap into the booming trend. Nielsen research forecast that Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, Germany, China, Britain and the US would see a combined total of US$105 billion in “cross-border online shopping” this year and that figure should nearly triple to US$307 billion in the next five years. Of the markets studied, the US was the most popular cross-border shopping destination, followed by Britain, China and Hong Kong.
INTERNET
Alibaba offers smart buying
Alibaba Group Holding (阿里巴巴), China’s largest e-commerce company, has developed a smart TV operating system and set-top box to win more users by offering services on a wider spectrum of devices. Alibaba will make set-top boxes in collaboration with Wasu Media Holding Co (華數傳媒) that will link TVs to the Internet, the firm said yesterday. Some manufacturers will incorporate the operating system, which will include online shopping, and integrate its payment system Alipay in their TVs, it said.
SERVICE
McDonald’s Q2 disappoints
McDonald’s is mixing up its menu with healthier, fresher-sounding items such as its chicken McWraps, but not enough customers are biting. The world’s biggest hamburger chain on Monday reported a second-quarter profit that rose 4 percent to US$1.4 billion, or US$1.38 per share, from a year ago. However, that was short of the US$1.40 per share analysts expected. Sales this month are expected to be relatively flat, the company said.
SEMICONDUCTORS
TI upbeat on Q3 earnings
Texas Instruments Inc (TI), the largest analog-chip maker, forecast third-quarter sales and profit that may exceed analysts’ estimates as demand from the automotive and industrial markets helps counter a PC slump. Revenue will be US$3.09 billion to US$3.35 billion and earnings will be US$0.49 to US$0.57 a share, the company said in a statement on Monday. In the second quarter, net profit rose 48 percent to US$660 million, or US$0.58 a share, from a year earlier, it 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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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