TELECOMS
Talk Talk plays down attack
British telecoms company Talk Talk says a cyberattack feared to have put 4 million customers’ details at risk is not as bad as initially thought. Chief executive Dido Harding on Saturday said that attackers hacked the company’s Web site, but not its core systems, and “none of our customers’ credit card information has been exposed.” She said some bank account details had been accessed, but not enough for thieves to steal money from customers’ accounts. It is the third known cyberattack this year on Talk Talk, which provides mobile phone, Internet and pay-TV services.
MANUFACTURING
Lexmark explores options
Lexmark International Inc hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc to explore strategic alternatives after the computer-printer maker’s stock had dropped 20 percent for the year. No timetable has been set and there is no assurance that the move will result in a transaction, the Lexington, Kentucky-based company said on Friday. “While the board is encouraged by the company’s future prospects, the board does not believe Lexmark’s current share price fully reflects the intrinsic value created by the company,” company lead director Jean-Paul Montupet said in a statement. The company in July reported a 1.4 percent drop in second-quarter revenue to US$879.3 million, missing analysts’ estimates of US$901 million.
START-UPS
Uber plans to raise capital
Uber Technologies Inc, the ride-hailing service, is planning to raise close to US$1 billion in new venture capital from investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Investors are looking at a valuation of US$60 billion to US$70 billion. Such a fundraising round would make Uber the world’s most valuable private start-up by far. A round just this summer valued the company at more than US$50 billion, a bit more than Facebook’s last big private capital raise in 2011. The latest round of financing will be the eighth that the company has sought over the past five years.
AVIATION
American’s income up 80%
A big merger and cheaper jet fuel are doing wonders for American Airlines. The world’s biggest airline on Friday reported that net income jumped 80 percent to US$1.69 billion in the third quarter thanks to a huge drop in fuel spending. The company said that excluding special items related to its merger and other items such as technology help, adjusted profit was US$1.9 billion — the highest in any quarter in American’s history. The company does not disclose average fares, but yield, or the amount that passengers pay for each 1.6km they fly, fell 9.2 percent. That contributed to a 3.9 percent decline in third-quarter revenue.
BANKING
UNB misses Q3 estimates
Union National Bank (UNB) PJSC, the United Arab Emirates lender in which the governments of Abu Dhabi and Dubai both own stakes, reported third-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates as impairment charges rose and fee and trading income declined. Net income fell 12 percent to 480.6 million dirhams (US$131 million), the Abu Dhabi-based bank said in a statement to the stock exchange yesterday. Impairment charges jumped 57 percent to 199.8 million dirhams. Fee and commission income dropped 16 percent and the lender had a loss from currency and derivatives trading in the quarter versus a profit a year ago.
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],”