SOFTWARE
Microsoft widens CEO search
Microsoft Corp’s board is focusing on Ford Motor Co chief executive Alan Mulally and internal executive Satya Nadella as part of a group of more likely candidates to become the next chief executive of the world’s biggest software company, according to people familiar with the matter. While internal candidate Tony Bates and former Nokia Oyj chief executive Stephen Elop remain in the mix, they are currently considered less likely to be offered the job, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private. Preferences remain fluid, and other people are being considered and could emerge as front-runners, said one of the people, without identifying anybody. The board is aiming for a quick replacement for longtime chief executive Steve Ballmer within the next 12 months.
TRADE
Free-trade zone disappoints
China’s new free-trade zone has drawn just 38 overseas firms in its first two months of operations, officials said yesterday, as foreign companies await concrete policies and deeper reforms. Authorities set up the zone in the commercial city of Shanghai in late September with pledges of reform, including free convertibility of the yuan, but a lengthy “negative list” of what is barred in the zone and an open-ended deadline to introduce financial reforms have made foreign firms hesitant to set up there, analysts said. The 38 overseas companies newly established in the zone have total registered capital of US$560 million, figures released yesterday showed. More than a third of the companies — 14 — are from Hong Kong, an autonomous region of China whose firms are counted as being from overseas.
SOUTH KOREA
Surplus hits record high
The nation’s current account surplus surged to another all-time high of US$9.51 billion last month on brisk exports of automobiles and mobile devices, the central bank said yesterday. The current account figure shattered the previous record of US$8.64 billion set in May, according to data from the Bank of Korea. That compared with a surplus of US$6.54 billion posted in September and US$6.35 billion the previous year. It was the 21st consecutive month that South Korea has posted a current-account surplus since it last posted a deficit in January last year. Exports rose 8.2 percent year-on-year to US$52.23 billion, while imports expanded 5.6 percent to US$45.2 billion, resulting in a surplus of US$7.03 billion in the goods account. The surplus in the services account, which includes transport, travel and other services, nearly doubled from US$870 million in September to US$1.65 billion last month.
EUROPEAN UNION
No decision on deposit rate
The European Central Bank (ECB) would only take its key deposit rate — currently at 0 percent — into negative territory in an extreme situation, ECB Vice President Vitor Constancio said on Wednesday. Earlier this month, the ECB pared back its central “refi” refinancing rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a new all-time low of 0.25 percent and although ECB President Mario Draghi said the central bank was technically ready to introduce negative interest rates on its deposit facility, it left that rate unchanged at 0 percent. “We have announced many months ago that from a pure technical point of view we are ready to do it, but certainly no decision about that, because it is certainly open to measures that are certainly unprecedented,” Constancio 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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six