ACQUISITIONS
Expedia to buy HomeAway
Travel booking Web site Expedia Inc on Wednesday said it is buying short-term rental marketplace HomeAway Inc for US$3.9 billion to boost its presence in the vacation rental market. The company said it is to pay about US$38.31 in cash and stock for each HomeAway share. Both companies’ boards have approved the deal, which they expect to close next year. HomeAway has more than 1 million paid listings of vacation rental homes in 190 natons. Expedia’s portfolio also includes Hotels.com, Orbitz and Travelocity.
MACROECONOMICS
Yellen signals US rate hike
US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Wednesday said an interest rate hike next month is a “live possibility” if the US economy stays on track. Yellen described the economy as “performing well” right now, with solid growth in domestic spending. At their meeting last week, policymakers believed that the threat of global headwinds had ebbed, Yellen said. Meanwhile, US Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley said at a separate appearance on Wednesday that he was in full agreement that December was a “live possibility and we will see what the data shows.”
REAL ESTATE
UK house prices rise 1.1%
British house prices rose last month, according to Halifax, which said a shortage of properties for sale might put further upward pressure on values in the coming months. The average cost of a home gained 1.1 percent from the previous month to £205,240 (US$315,793), the mortgage lender said yesterday. Prices rose 10 percent year-on-year, while they advanced 2.8 percent in the quarter through last month.
MACROECONOMICS
German factory orders slide
German factory orders unexpectedly extended a series of declines in September amid a slump in demand for investment goods in the eurozone, highlighting increasing risks for Europe’s largest economy. Orders, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, fell 1.7 percent from August, when they dropped 1.8 percent, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy data showed yesterday. That is the third consecutive decrease and compares with a median estimate of a 1 percent gain in a Bloomberg survey. Orders declined 1 percent from a year earlier.
RETAIL
Adidas raises sales target
Adidas AG raised its full-year sales and profit targets yesterday as strong demand for its Adidas and Reebok brands powered a strong third-quarter performance. In the July-to-September period, net profit rose by 10.4 percent to 311 million euros (US$338 million). Underlying or operating profit was up 26.5 percent at 505 million euros on a 17.7-percent increase in sales to 4.758 billion euros. The group now expects sales to increase at a high-single-digit rate this year, or between 6 and 9 percent, Adidas said
CREDIT RATINGS
Moody’s cuts VW to ‘A3’
Volkswagen’s credit rating was cut by Moody’s by one notch to “A3” on Wednesday as the toll on the German automaker grew over its cheating on emissions. While Moody’s said Volkswagen had the financial strength to survive what could cost the company many billions of dollars in fines and compensation, it said the company’s reputation and earnings were at risk.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure