MEDIA
Disney ups shares buy-back
The Walt Disney Co will buy back between US$6 billion and US$8 billion of its shares next year, the media company’s chief financial officer Jay Rasulo said on Thursday. That is up from the US$4 billion a year that Disney has been spending on repurchasing its shares, Rasulo said during an investor conference. “Given our confidence in the overall company and where our share price sits in the marketplace we intend to significantly increase our buyback next year,” Rasulo said. The company may borrow some money to fund the buybacks toward the end of the year, but not enough to bring its credit rating down, he said. Disney’s shares spiked following Rasulo’s comments and gained more than 2.4 percent, or US$1.55, to close at US$65.49 on Thursday.
INTERNET
Yahoo’s stock price climbs
Yahoo’s stock price has surpassed US$30 for the first time since the Internet company fended off a takeover offer bid by Microsoft 5.5 years ago for US$31 per share, or US$44.6 billon. The Sunnyvale, California, company reached the milestone on Thursday after CEO Marissa Mayer said on Wednesday that the number of Yahoo’s users has climbed 20 percent to about 800 million people since she defected from Google Inc last year. Yahoo’s stock traded as high as US$30.27 on Thursday on heavy volume. In afternoon trading, the gains pared slightly and the stock ended up closing at US$29.65, up US$0.46.
AUTO MAKERS
Renault, Bollore to team up
French auto maker Renault and the Bollore family group that runs a successful pay-as-you-go electric-car network in Paris, are teaming up to develop technology. In a statement, the groups said they had agreed to develop car sharing systems for electric cars and cooperate on the manufacturing of the Bollore Bluecar that has become a common sight in Paris since the launch of the Autolib rental scheme in 2011. French Minister of Industry Arnaud Montebourg said the tie-up, first reported by Le Figaro newspaper, was “necessary,” and would allow Renault to take advantage of the Bollore-developed battery that has proved its merit.
MACROECONOMICS
US deficit down slightly
The US deficit was down 35 percent to US$755 billion in the first 11 months of the fiscal year, after posting a shortfall of US$148 billion last month, the US Treasury said on Thursday. Although larger than the average monthly spending gap, the deficit last month was 22.5 percent lower than August last year, helped by a slight rise in receipts against a sharper fall in spending. The 35 percent decline over the first 11 months from the same period in the fiscal year last year came as receipts rose 13 percent to US$2.47 trillion, while outlays were down 3.9 percent at US$3.19 trillion.
COMMODITIES
Gold price may drop further
Gold is poised to extend declines as the US Federal Reserve withdraws stimulus and economic data improve, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc, which predicts there is a risk that bullion may drop below US$1,000 an ounce. While debt-ceiling discussions in the US and the Syrian crisis may support bullion in the near term, gold will resume its decline into next year, Goldman Sachs commodities research head Jeffrey Currie said in an interview on Bloomberg Television yesterday. The bank’s target for next year is US$1,050 and the commodity may overshoot to the downside, Currie said.
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”