CHINA
Property market risks seen
There are downside risks for the property market in the second quarter because of the tightening measures that have been reintroduced to some cities, a government researcher said. The curbs in first-tier cities are limiting property sales’ growth, Zhang Changcai (張昌彩), deputy director general at the Information Research Department of the State Council, said at a conference in Beijing on Saturday. The second quarter will be a challenging period for developers because of the tightening in Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as declining sales in second-tier markets, industry consultant E-House (China) Holdings Ltd (易居中國控股) co-president Ding Zuyu (丁祖昱) said in Shanghai on Friday.
INTERNET
Yahoo extends bid deadline
Yahoo Inc has given prospective buyers an added week to make preliminary bids for the company’s core assets, tech news Web site Re/Code reported on Friday. The struggling Internet pioneer has been briefing prospective buyers, according to US media reports that indicated the list of suitors included telecommunications titan Verizon Communications Inc, Google-parent Alphabet Inc and Time Inc. The deadline for initial offers was reportedly extended from today to Monday next week, a day before California-based Yahoo releases earnings figures for the first three months of this year. Re/Code attributed the information to unnamed sources close to the situation and “blabby bankers they talk to.”
INTERNET
Court setback for Google
A US appeals court has ruled that Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood can resume an investigation of Google. The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a district judge who had sided with Google. The district judge originally ruled that the unit of Alphabet Inc did not have to answer a subpoena by Hood. The appeals court is also dissolving an injunction issued by the judge that had barred Hood from bringing any lawsuits against the California-based company.
AUTOMAKERS
Renault, Morocco ink deal
French carmaker Renault SA has signed agreements with Morocco to invest more than US$1 billion and create 50,000 jobs in the North African country, Moroccan Minister of Industry, Trade, & New Technologies Moulay Hafid Elalamy said, after the deal was signed on Friday in the presence of King Mohamed VI. Renault said it is optimistic about the deal. The Africa-Middle East-India region is Renault’s top market worldwide outside Europe, with sales there increasing by 16.9 percent last year, according to figures published in January. Sales went up by 11.5 percent in Morocco and by 8.7 percent in Algeria.
OIL
Ecuador urges stabilization
Oil-producing countries must take the necessary steps to stabilize the global crude market in a bid to improve prices, Ecuadorean Minister of Foreign Affairs Guillaume Long said on behalf of Latin American nations after a gathering in Quito. Waiting for the market to balance itself would be “catastrophic,” Ecuadorean Minister of Hydrocarbons Carlos Pareja said before the meeting on Friday. Ecuador, OPEC’s smallest member, hosted the talks ahead of a summit of producers in Doha, Qatar, this coming Sunday. Venezuelan Minister of Petroleum Eulogio Del Pino, one of the most vocal advocates of a freeze, reiterated in Quito his call for OPEC and non-OPEC nations to seek an oil price “balance.”
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
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
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in