ELECTRONICS
Seoul charges LG executives
South Korean prosecutors charged three executives of LG Electronics Inc with vandalizing high-end washing machines from Samsung Electronics Co at retail shops in Germany last year. Jo Seong-jin, head of the home appliance division, was indicted, along with Cho Han-ki and Chun Myung-woo, LG said in a statement citing Jo’s lawyer, Ham Yoon-keun. The incident occurred ahead of the IFA show in Berlin in September, when a number of Samsung Crystal Blue washing machines, which sell for more than US$2,000, were damaged. The charges are the latest black eye for South Korea’s chaebols, or family-run conglomerates, which dominate the nation’s corporate landscape and have been subject to a long-running debate about their power and influence.
EMPLOYMENT
Tesco to fire 10,000: report
Troubled British supermarket giant Tesco PLC could axe as many as 10,000 jobs under plans to shut 43 stores in a company-wide overhaul, according to British media. Tesco, which revealed the closures in January last year, has already confirmed that 2,000 jobs are under threat, but the Sunday Telegraph reported that the figure could be five times higher, as boss Dave Lewis attempts to reverse sliding profits. About 6,000 of the job losses would be from head office and the 43 store closures, with the rest coming from an overhaul of the supermarket’s operating practices, according to the report. Tesco, which has a British workforce of more than 310,000, had unveiled plans to shut unprofitable branches, sell assets and axe its shareholder dividend in a bid to revive its fortunes after an accounting scandal. The group hopes to cut head office costs by 30 percent, saving £250 million (US$384.8 million).
SOFTWARE
Infosys to buy Panaya
Infosys Ltd, India’s second-largest software services company, agreed to buy Panaya Ltd for US$200 million to help customers automate more business processes. The deal for closely held Panaya is expected to close before the end of next month, Bengaluru, India-based Infosys said in a statement. The price includes equity and assumed debt. Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka is pushing his firm into artificial intelligence technologies and retraining some of the company’s almost 170,000 workers to help clients automate tasks. The former chief technology officer at SAP AG is counting on the moves to help lower costs and allow the company to post industry-leading growth next year. “The acquisition of Panaya is a key step in renewing and differentiating our service lines,” Sikka said in the statement.
BANKING
Bankers’ pay cut since crisis
Investment bankers earn 25 percent less on average than they did before the financial crisis, while asset managers are taking home 22 percent more, a research firm. Average annual pay for investment bank employees has declined to US$288,000 since 2006, compared with US$263,000 at asset-management firms, New Financial said in a report this month. The sample for the report includes 12 investment banks and 18 asset managers, it said. “One reason for the increase in pay in asset management is that it has remained constant relative to revenues over the past decade,” New Financial said. “At investment banks, staff are taking a shrinking portion of a shrinking pot.” European and US regulators have tightened pay rules to prevent a repeat of the risk-taking that contributed to the 2008 global financial crisis.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the