UNITED STATES
SEC fines Big Four firms
US market regulators slapped sanctions on Friday on the Big Four global accounting firms over their 2012 refusal to turn over documents on Chinese companies under investigation. To settle the long-running case, the four agreed to pay the exchange regulator US$500,000 each. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that it had officially censured China-based units of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which also agreed to undertake specific measures to better respond to SEC requests.
BRAZIL
Police seize Batista property
Police on Friday seized a piano, the equivalent of US$45,700 in cash, six cars and other possessions from the home of Brazilian tycoon Eike Batista, once Brazil’s richest man, who is on trial for insider trading. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Brazilian Judge Flavio Roberto de Souza said in an interview that he is looking for evidence that Batista has sent money abroad. Batista, who has denied any wrongdoing, is accused of stock-market manipulation by using privileged information.
INTERNET
Uber adds safety features
Uber Inc said it is introducing two new safety features for riders in India in response to concerns about safety that followed a passenger reporting she had been raped by a driver. The San Francisco taxi alternative company said it would launch a “panic button” in its ride-hailing app that allows riders to notify the police in case of an emergency, and a “safety net” feature that would allow users to share trip details and their location with as many as five other people.
TELECOMS
Motorola exploring sale
Motorola Solutions Inc, the maker of two-way radios and other communications equipment, is exploring a possible sale, people familiar with the matter said. Buyers of the 87-year-old company could include private-equity firms and companies including Raytheon Co, Honeywell International Inc and General Dynamics Corp, said one of the people, asking not to be named because the information is confidential. The Schaumburg, Illinois-based company has a market value of about US$15.6 billion.
INTERNET
Rocket to buy Delivery Hero
Germany’s Rocket Internet AG said it is spending 496 million euros (US$561 million) to buy a 30 percent stake in Berlin-based online takeaway company Delivery Hero Holding GmbH. The Internet company said on Friday that it would also buy Spain’s La Nevera Roja and Italy’s Pizzabo for an undisclosed amount. It said that the new group, which would also include Rocket’s Foodpanda GmbH, would be the largest online food delivery company in the world outside of China by orders.
INTERNET
Google lets users be guides
An update to Google Inc’s free online map service on Friday let users become local guides who post reviews of businesses and venues. The move came as a challenge to Yelp Inc’s Elite program that rewards people for getting into the upper echelon of voices at the crowd-sourced reviews service.
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],”