Dalian Wanda Group Co (萬達集團), the Chinese conglomerate that has been on an acquisition spree, is planning to announce a “major deal” tomorrow, billionaire chairman Wang Jianlin (王健林) said.
Wang, who spoke at Oxford University on Tuesday, did not provide details of the deal beyond saying that it would be outside of the UK. Wanda is also in talks on a “comprehensive” project involving entertainment in the UK that would result in 10,000 jobs, he said.
Wang, who vies with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴) Jack Ma (馬雲) as China’s richest man, has had a busy year by agreeing to buy Godzilla producer Legendary Entertainment for US$3.5 billion, investing in three hospitals for US$2.3 billion, forming a financial group and signing a US$10 billion development deal in India.
Separately, the group’s Wanda Cinema Line Co (萬達院線) was halted from trading in Shenzhen yesterday pending the announcement of an acquisition.
Wanda is seeking acquisitions to bolster growth as the group braces for falling sales from its main property business. That has prompted Wang to increasingly look toward expanding his entertainment business.
In buying Legendary, Wang is poised to become the first Chinese person to control a Hollywood film company. Aside from running China’s biggest movie-theater chain, he bought control of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc in the US in 2012.
Viacom Inc chief executive officer Philippe Dauman on Tuesday said that it is exploring the sale of a stake in Paramount Pictures and that it expects to reach an agreement by June.
A Wanda representative was not immediately available to comment on the prospects of the Chinese company being a suitor for Paramount, while a Viacom spokesman declined to comment.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six