INSURANCE
Clients short-changed
British insurer Aviva PLC said on Saturday it would compensate about 250 annuity clients who had been short-changed because of an error in its sales process. The Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that Aviva had discovered staff had sold hundreds of clients inappropriate pensions last year. Savers with medical conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure and smokers should have been offered an increased annuity — which provides income for life — based on their lower life expectancy, the newspaper said. Aviva said 250 annuity clients were affected.
E-COMMERCE
Apple suit reaches deal
A US judge on Friday gave final approval to Apple Inc’s agreement to pay US$450 million to resolve claims it harmed consumers by conspiring with five publishers to raise ebook prices. During a hearing in Manhattan, US District Judge Denise Cote approved what she called a “highly unusual” accord. It calls for Apple to pay US$50 million in lawyers and US$400 million to as many as 23 million consumers if the company is unsuccessful in appealing a ruling that found it liable for antitrust violations. The US$400 million comes on top of earlier settlements with five publishers in the case, which provided US$166 million for ebook purchasers. Apple agreed to the settlement in June. A federal appeals court is scheduled to hear Apple’s appeal on Dec. 15.
OIL
Puerto Rico to debate tax
Puerto Rico’s governor has called a special legislative session to debate a measure that would boost an oil tax by 68 percent. Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla issued an executive order on Friday saying legislators would meet today. The measure aims to help sell up to US$2.9 billion in bonds and strengthen the debt-ridden Highway and Transportation Authority. If approved, the US territory’s excise tax on a barrel of crude oil would increase from US$9.25 to US$15.50 and generate US$178 million a year.
AVIATION
Plane exports in focus
The US Export-Import Bank is to refrain from supporting aircraft deals that may hurt the US economy, its chairman Fred Hochberg said. “We don’t want any exports from the United States that we finance that can hurt the US or hurt jobs,” Hochberg said during an interview in Mumbai on Friday. “Aircraft are no exception.” Delta Air Lines Inc sued the bank in 2011 to try and block the agency’s loan guarantees for foreign carriers, including Air India Ltd’s purchases of Boeing Co aircraft, claiming harm to US businesses was not properly analyzed.
TELECOMS
Italy-Brazil firms talk deal
Telecom Italia SpA directors authorized the company to explore a potential transaction between its Brazilian unit Tim Participacoes SA and smaller rival Oi SA, a deal that would shake the country’s wireless market. The board of directors has “empowered management to examine in depth the options for a possible integration” of Tim and Oi, the Milan-based carrier said in a statement after its board met in Rome on Friday. “The next steps, if there are to be any, will be submitted to the board for approval, following the opinion of the committee of independent directors,” Telecom Italia said.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to