AVIATION
Judge refuses to block merger
A judge refused to block a merger between American Airlines and US Airways on Friday, saying a bankruptcy judge correctly rejected arguments made by a lawyer for some consumers. San Francisco attorney Joseph Alioto argued that the deal would harm fliers because it would result in less competition and higher prices. However, US District Judge Loretta Preska repeatedly said that his arguments relied on outdated facts, had no evidence to support them and sometimes made no sense. American has said it plans to complete the merger with Tempe, Arizona-based US Airways on Monday. Preska said a federal bankruptcy judge was “correct in all respects” in deciding last week to let the merger proceed.
TRADING
Ex-Goldman trader gets jail
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc trader Matthew Taylor was sentenced on Friday to serve nine months in prison and pay US$118 million in restitution to his former employer after he pleaded guilty to pursuing an unauthorized US$8.3 billion futures trade in 2007. In imposing a sentence well below the 33-to-41-month term that the US Department of Justice had recommended, US District Judge William Pauley in New York castigated both Goldman and government authorities for failing to immediately address Taylor’s conduct when it occurred. The case is a “paradigm of everything that is wrong with Wall Street and the regulators charged with protecting the public,” Pauley said. Prosecutors claimed Taylor lied to supervisors and fabricated trades in December 2007 to conceal an US$8.3 billion position in Standard & Poor’s 500 E-mini futures contracts, which bet on the direction of that index. Goldman fired him shortly thereafter.
LOANS
Countrywide settles US$500m
Bank of America Corp’s Countrywide unit won final approval of a US$500 million class-action settlement with investors who claimed they were duped into buying its mortgage-backed securities. US District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in Los Angeles said the settlement was a fair outcome because her previous rulings prevented the investors from recovering damages from Bank of America as Countrywide’s parent and because the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said as recently as June that it might put Countrywide in bankruptcy. The settlement resolves claims that Countrywide misled investors in offering documents about the quality of the home loans that were pooled for the securities.
E-COMMERCE
Drones a ‘fantasy’: EBay
EBay Inc chief executive officer John Donahoe called the delivery of products by drones — a project that rival Amazon.com Inc is working on — a fantasy. “We’re not really focusing on long-term fantasies,” Donahoe said in an interview with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television when she asked if he would be showing her a drone. “We’re working on things that will change consumers’ experiences on Friday,” he said. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said this week that the world’s largest e-commerce company is testing drones to deliver small packages, an initiative that he anticipates will happen within five years. The endeavor was met with resistance from regulators and skepticism from couriers.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last