BANKING
Goldman cuts more jobs
Goldman Sachs Group Inc is cutting more jobs in its securities units, extending reductions in fixed-income operations this year to about 10 percent of workers there, according to people with knowledge of the situation. The dismissals in New York and London this week build on cuts that already had targeted about 8 percent of fixed-income personnel through last month, people with knowledge of the matter said. The push also affects the equities division, one person said. The Wall Street Journal reported the recent escalation of fixed-income reductions earlier on Thursday. Michael DuVally, a company spokesman, declined to comment on the expansion.
ELECTRONICS
Google, Honeywell settle
Alphabet Inc-owned Google and Honeywell International Inc on Thursday announced a deal to end a patent dispute over technology used in Nest smart thermostats. The companies said in a joint release that a new patent cross-licensing agreement resolves a pending lawsuit. However, they did not disclose terms or financial details. Google bought Nest in 2014 in a deal valued at US$3.2 billion. Nest operates under the umbrella of Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
MEDIA
News Corp slides into loss
News Corp on Thursday said a one-time legal settlement charge pushed the media giant into a loss in what it described as a “disappointing” quarter. The conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch and his family, which includes newspapers around the world and a large online real-estate Web site, reported a net loss for shareholders of US$149 million in the quarter to March. That compared with a US$23 million profit a year ago. Total revenues slipped about 7 percent to US$1.9 billion. The bottom line was hit by a US$280 million charge to settle a lawsuit brought by consumer packaged goods companies that accused News Corp of controlling a monopoly on in-store advertising in the US.
BRAZIL
Fitch cuts sovereign rating
Brazil was downgraded by Fitch Ratings, which kept a negative outlook on the nation’s debt, citing a deeper-than-anticipated recession and political instability. Fitch cut the rating by one level to “BB,” in line with ratings from S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investors Service. Fitch said the Brazilian economy would contract 3.8 percent this year and rebound by 0.5 percent next year. The government’s debt burden is expected to reach about 80 percent of GDP by next year, one of most indebted sovereigns in the “BB” category, Fitch said.
AUSTRALIA
Inflation to miss target
The central bank forecast that core inflation is unlikely to reach the bottom of its target this year and will probably only do so in the ensuing two years as the developed world’s disinflation quandary spreads. Three-year bond yields plunged to a record. The Reserve Bank of Australia, in its quarterly statement yesterday, said underlying inflation is expected to be 1 to 2 percent this year, down from the 2 to 3 percent it forecast in February. It left estimated economic growth at 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent this year and next and predicted unemployment would remain at the current 5.7 percent. It gave no guidance on the interest-rate outlook after cutting its benchmark to a fresh record 1.75 percent on Tuesday.
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