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.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is