SOFTWARE
Microsoft eyeing Sydney
Microsoft Corp yesterday said it would open its first flagship store outside the US in Sydney, as the technology giant expands its physical footprint to take on global rivals Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co. Microsoft Australia’s managing director Pip Marlow said the shop, to be located in Sydney’s main Pitt Street shopping district, was a “significant development” for the US firm. Marlow did not say when it would open, but the Australian Financial Review said it would be in time to capture the busy Christmas shopping period.
BANKING
Credit Suisse Q1 profit up
Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse yesterday said a strong performance by its private banking unit helped first-quarter net profit rise 23 percent to 1.05 billion Swiss francs (US$1.1 billion), outstripping forecasts by analysts. Its investment bank posted a 14 percent rise in pretax profits to SF945 million. Chief executive Brady Dougan said that while trading revenue was higher than last year, the bank had a “difficult start to the year” due to a slowdown in underwriting only to benefit from later volatility in the markets.
TECHNOLOGY
Dollar drains IBM profit
IBM Corp on Monday reported lower profits in the first quarter following another drop in revenues, this time partly due to a strong US dollar. Earnings for the first quarter slipped 2.4 percent to US$2.3 billion, while revenues dropped 11.9 percent to US$19.59 billion. Profits translated to US$2.91 per share, US$0.09 above analysts’ forecasts. However, revenues lagged projections of US$19.73 billion, falling for the 12th straight quarter.
SEMICONDUCTORS
ARM profit rises on iPhones
ARM Holdings PLC, the British chip designer favored by Apple Inc, beat expectations for first-quarter profit thanks to demand for the iPhone 6, and said its royalties would grow as its latest technology is used in more smartphones. Shares in the Cambridge, England-based company rose to an all-time high of £12.33 after it posted a 24 percent rise in first-quarter pretax profit to £120.5 million (US$179.1 million). That beat analysts’ expectations of £115 million, according to a company-provided consensus.
INTERNET
Twitter eases privacy limits
Twitter Inc said on Monday it was making it easier to take direct messages private. Previously, direct messaging could only occur between two Twitter users “following” each other, which basically allowed both parties to see whatever they posted publicly. As of Monday, users can change the settings on their accounts to allow receipt of a direct message from anyone, including those who do not follow the user. In turn, the user can reply with a direct message to the sender, regardless of whether the sender follows the user, Twitter said.
ENERGY
EU may charge Gazprom
EU regulators plan to announce anti-trust charges against Russia energy giant Gazprom today, sources close to the matter said. The EU will officially complain that Gazprom was hindering competition in Central and Eastern European gas markets, where the company benefits from a dominant position. If found responsible, Gazprom risks fines as high as 10 percent of the company’s overall sales, which amounted to the ruble equivalent of 93 billion euros (US$100 billion) in 2013, the latest data available.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts