BANKING
Credit Suisse fine spurs loss
Credit Suisse AG has posted a second-quarter net loss of 700 million Swiss francs (US$779 million) after paying the largest penalty ever imposed in a US criminal tax case. Switzerland’s second-biggest bank calls the steep loss — a striking contrast to the SF1.045 billion profit it posted in the same quarter last year —a direct result of resolving the US government’s case against the bank for helping wealthy US citizens avoid paying taxes through secret offshore accounts. The Zurich-based bank pleaded guilty in May to aiding US tax evaders and agreed to pay about US$2.6 billion to the US government and regulators. “We deeply regret the past misconduct that led to this settlement and we take full responsibility for it,” CEO Brady Dougan said yesterday.
INTERNET
Hit series boosts Netflix
Netflix’s second-quarter earnings more than doubled, as new episodes from hit series Orange is the New Black helped the Internet video service surpass 50 million worldwide subscribers for the first time. The gains announced on Monday include an additional 570,000 US subscribers, slightly more than Netflix’s management predicted. The quarter is typically the company’s slowest of the year, as people spend more time outdoors instead of watching video. Investors applauded the second-quarter results, pushing Netflix’s stock up US$4.05 to US$456 in extended trading. The shares have surged by 23 percent this year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has increased 7 percent.
INTERNET
Facebook adds save button
Facebook Inc on Monday began letting people squirrel away links to check out later. The feature is being added as users increasingly connect with the social network from mobile devices while on the go, with little time to explore Internet content. Letting people save items for later scrutiny encourages people to return and spend more time on Facebook, increasing opportunities for the social network to cash in on money-making tools such as advertising. California-based Facebook said users have the option of keeping saved items private or sharing them with friends via the social network.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Toshiba sues Hynix in leak
South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc on Monday said Japanese rival Toshiba Corp is seeking ¥109.15 billion (US$1.08 billion) in damages in a lawsuit filed over the suspected leak of NAND flash memorychip technology. Toshiba is also seeking to have SK Hynix destroy all information about the technology in question, and cease production and sales of NAND memory products using that technology, according to a regulatory filing by SK Hynix. The South Korean firm said it would seek to have the lawsuit dismissed.
INTERNET
China users hit 632m
China has 632 million Internet users, the China Internet Network Information Center said on Monday. Its Internet population — defined as those who have gone online at least once in the past six months — has increased by 14 million since January, the center said. Mobile-phone users represent a large share of the online population, it said, with 527 million people in China accessing the Internet using mobile devices in the six months to June. However, use of social networks has dropped, with 257 million people using social networking sites during the period, down 7.4 percent from 278 million in December.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by