ELECTRONICS
Sony stumbles despite profit
Sony Corp yesterday said that its net profit for the three months ending in December last year more than tripled from the prior year, but confirmed that it was on course to incur an annual loss. The improvement stems mainly from a weak yen, increased sales of smartphones, robust PlayStation console businesses and strong demand for image sensors for cameras, the firm said. The Japanese firm posted a net profit of ¥90 billion (US$742 million) for the October-December term last year, slightly up from the ¥89 billion the group estimated last month, and more than three times bigger than ¥26.4 billion in the same quarter of 2013.
TELECOMS
Ericsson buys Chinese unit
Swedish telecommunications group LM Ericsson on Monday said that it has bought the telecom division of Sunrise (China) Technology Group Ltd (中昱科技), adding 1,000 employees to its payroll less than a week after announcing major redundancies in Sweden. “The acquisition of Sunrise Technology’s telecom business will boost our ability to serve mobile operators’ IT transformation needs in China,” group vice president Magnus Mandersson said in a statement. “Most of the country’s telecom operators ... will soon replace their legacy IT systems with next-generation solutions,” he added, highlighting opportunities for growth in the world’s largest mobile phone market.
AVIATION
SIA eyes S Korean carrier
Singapore Airlines (SIA) yesterday said in a filing with the Singapore Exchange that it is in talks to buy a stake in South Korean budget carrier Jeju Air, a deal that would expand its low-cost portfolio. South Korea’s Maeil Business newspaper yesterday reported that SIA is in talks with conglomerate Aekyung Group to acquire about 20 percent of Jeju Air. It said both parties began the talks at the end of last year and were at the “final stage of negotiation for the acquisition price.” The report added that Aekyung Group holds 86.23 percent of Jeju Air.
REAL ESTATE
Willis Tower purchased
Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII is buying Chicago’s Willis Tower, once called the Sears Tower, from 233 South Wacker LLC for an undisclosed amount. The Willis Tower has 110 stories and is the second-tallest office building in the US. It is the fifth-tallest office building in the world and was for many years the world’s tallest. The Wall Street Journal put the purchase price at US$1.3 billion, citing unnamed Blackstone executives. That would make it the highest price paid for an office tower outside New York, according to real estate information provider CoStar Group Inc.
MERGERS
Concrete giant derailed
A deal to create the world’s largest cement manufacturer was put on hold on Monday after the board of Swiss company Holcim Ltd rejected the terms of the merger with France’s Lafarge SA. Holcim said in a statement that its board of directors concluded that the merger could not be pursued “in its present form.” The companies said in April last year that they would combine to form an industry giant with 32 billion euros (US$33.87 billion) in annual revenues through a one-to-one swap of shares in the new company.
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
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San