MEDIA
ESPN removes videos
ESPN has begun removing its videos from YouTube due to rights issues surrounding next week’s launch of YouTube’s ad-free subscription service, YouTube Red. Fans can go to ESPN’s own Web sites for its videos, the sports network said on Friday. Media analyst Laura Martin of Needham & Co said it is likely that ESPN’s pre-existing contracts with cable and satellite companies prevent it from participating in YouTube’s subscription plan.
BANKING
Piguet Galland to pay US
Piguet Galland & Cie SA will pay US$15.4 million to avoid prosecution under a US program that requires participating firms in Switzerland to say how they helped US clients dodge taxes. The bank admitted that it maintained 337 US accounts since 2008 with a maximum value of US$441 million. The private bank is the 43rd this year to reach an agreement under which it will not be prosecuted.
TRADE
Pork import ban lifted
China has agreed to resume pork imports from 14 US plants and warehouses. The US Department of Agriculture said on Thursday that it had reached an accord permitting supplies from six processing factories and eight cold-storage facilities. China had stopped importing pork from the plants and warehouses after some cases where meat was found to have traces of ractopamine.
MACROECONOMICS
Eurozone activity picks up
Eurozone economic activity accelerated this month, a key business survey showed on Friday, in one of the best performances in four years which included a notable improvement in employment. Data monitoring company Markit said its composite Purchasing Managers Index rose to 54 points compared with 53.6 points last month, well above the 50-point boom-or-bust line.
MACROECONOMICS
Cyprus gets B+ debt rating
Fitch Ratings Ltd has upgraded Cyprus’ government debt rating by two notches to “B+” as the bailed-out country has done well to meet or exceed budget targets and a better-than-expected public debt. Fitch also gave Cyprus a positive outlook, meaning it could again upgrade the country.
CONSUMER GOODS
P&G’s revenue falls short
Procter & Gamble Co, the world’s largest consumer-products maker, posted first-quarter revenue that trailed analysts’ estimates after sales volumes fell in all of its product categories. Sales fell 12 percent to US$16.5 billion, P&G reported on Friday. That missed the US$17 billion average projection of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
TELECOMS
Ericsson misses Q3 estimate
Ericsson AB reported third-quarter profitability and sales that missed analysts’ estimates as business in Japan, Russia and Brazil slumped and spending slowed in China on 4G networks that power smartphones and tablets. The gross margin was 34.5 percent excluding some items, the network-equipment maker said on Friday. Sales rose about 3 percent to 59.2 billion kronor (US$7 billion), missing the average estimate of 60.7 billion kronor.
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