FRANCE
Industrial output declines
French industrial production continued to decline in June, widening the economic gap with Europe’s largest economy, Germany. France’s national statistical agency INSEE said in a statement yesterday that French industrial production shrank 1.4 percent in June from a month earlier. That followed a 0.3 percent monthly drop in May. Within manufacturing, steep declines were recorded in food and car industries. France’s June figures stand in stark contrast to Germany, where industrial production grew 2.4 percent in June. Unemployment hit 10.8 percent in the first quarter, and some economists say it won’t peak until at least next year.
FOOD
Danone buys yogurt maker
French dairy company Danone SA says it has acquired Connecticut-based yogurt maker YoCrunch in a move aimed to expand its presence in the US. M&Ms candies and Oreos cookie crumbs are among the tasty toppings YoCrunch has secured licenses for to include with its yogurts. Danone says the purchase, for an undisclosed price, “will advance Danone’s ambition to further develop yogurt consumption by notably expanding the various ways in which Americans can enjoy yogurt.” Last year YoCrunch, which is headquartered in the town of Naugatuck, had sales of US$110 million.
TELECOMS
America Movil bids for KPN
America Movil SAB, owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, says it will launch a bid for the 70 percent of Dutch telecom company Royal KPN NV it does not already own. The 2.40 euros per share bid represents a 20 percent premium to Thursday’s closing price, and values the part of KPN that Movil does not already own at 7.2 billion euros (US$9.6 billion) and the whole company at around 10.3 billion euros. The bid is far above the 1.60 euros shares were trading at in mid-July before Telefonica Deutschland announced plans to buy KPN’s prized possession, its E-Plus unit, the third-largest mobile company in Germany, for around 5 billion euros worth of cash and shares. KPN spokesman Ward Snijders said Friday the company is “studying” the America Movil bid.
GAMBLING
William Hill buys firm
An online gambling business founded by the son of Australian racing icon Gai Waterhouse was snapped up by Britain’s William Hill yesterday for at least A$34 million (US$31 million). Tom Waterhouse’s eponymous online gambling firm, established just three years ago, was purchased by the world’s largest betting company by market value in a deal that could be worth more than A$100 million, contingent on future earnings. William Hill paid Waterhouse, the son of renowned Australian horse trainer Gai, A$34 million up front.
ENERGY
Alstom in bribe allegations
French power company Alstom paid millions of dollars in bribes to secure lucrative contracts in Sao Paulo state in 1998, a Brazilian newspaper reported on Thursday. The Estado de Sao Paulo cited federal police documents saying Alstom executives were among 10 people facing charges in connection with the scandal. Two ex-state secretaries, two heads of the state energy firm EPTE also faced prosecution, according to the report, which comes five years after Brazilian federal prosecutors and authorities in France and Switzerland investigated Alstom for alleged payments of bribes to win contracts for metro equipment between 1995 and 2003.
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