AIRLINES
AA settles Sept. 11 suit
American Airlines (AA) and its insurers have settled a long-running legal battle with financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees when terrorists crashed a hijacked airliner into New York’s World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed when the agreement was announced in federal court in the state. Cantor Fitzgerald had sought nearly US$1.1 billion in damages above insurance payments. The New York Times reported that the firm later reduced its demand to between US$400 million and US$500 million. The case had been scheduled for trial in January. In 2001, Cantor Fitzgerald’s headquarters were in the top floors of the north tower, which was struck by American Airlines Flight 11. The firm accused the airline of negligence in allowing hijackers to board the plane and crash it into the tower.
TECHNOLOGY
Qualcomm names new CEO
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s largest maker of chips for mobile phones, promoted Steve Mollenkopf to CEO, elevating an official who was said to be a candidate for the top job at Microsoft Corp. Mollenkopf, 44, who had previously been chief operating officer, will become CEO on March 4, the San Diego, California-based company said in a statement on Friday. He will join the board and continue to serve as Qualcomm president. CEO Paul Jacobs, 51, will become executive chairman. The move marks the first time that the nearly three-decades-old chimaker has picked a leader from outside the founding Jacobs family. Mollenkopf’s promotion rules him out as a replacement for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
TELEVISION
Charter eyes Time Warner
Cable TV operator Charter Communications Inc is preparing to send a letter offering to buy the much larger Time Warner Cable Inc for below US$135 per share as early as tomorrow. That is according to a person familiar with the matter, who was unauthorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The news was reported earlier by the New York Times’ DealBook blog. The offer would value Time Warner Cable at up to US$38 billion and represents a small premium to the New York company’s closing price of US$131.41, up US$0.35, on Friday. However, shares have risen from the mid-US$90s in June, largely on takeover speculation. The person said the offer would be in cash and stock, and that Charter has lined up US$25 billion in debt to help finance the deal.
AUTOMAKERS
Toyota to begin settlements
After a four-year legal battle, Toyota Motor Corp is entering settlement talks on nearly 400 US lawsuits that allege sudden unintended acceleration problems with its vehicles led to deaths and injuries. Joint motions filed late on Thursday at the US District Court in Santa Ana and the Los Angeles County Superior Court in California indicated that both sides would begin an “intensive settlement process” next month. The Japanese automaker, which has recalled millions of cars since 2009 over the acceleration issue, agreed to the negotiations to make resolving the cases more efficient, spokeswoman Carly Schaffner told reporters on Friday. “We continue to stand behind the safety and quality of our vehicles,” she 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],”