INTERNET
Alibaba, Softbank team up
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) has teamed up with its largest shareholder, Softbank Group Corp, to form a cloud computing service venture targeting Japanese customers. The venture, known as SB Cloud Corp, is to open a new data center in Japan to tap Softbank’s customers ranging from start-ups to global organizations, extending a battle for customers with Amazon.com Inc. Alibaba is to provide services including data storage and processing services, the companies said in a joint statement. Softbank, owner of Japan’s third-largest phone business, will have a 60 percent stake in the new venture, while Alibaba will hold the rest.
COMPUTERS
Symantec to axe jobs
Symantec Corp, the biggest maker of cybersecurity software, said it is cutting about 10 percent of its workforce as it reorganizes its business. The company also said profit excluding some costs in the fiscal first quarter will be US$0.24 to US$0.26 a share on sales of US$865 million to US$895 million, Symantec said in a statement on Thursday. That was mostly in line with the average analyst projection of US$0.24 a share in profit on US$876.2 million in revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Those predictions were reduced last month when Symantec cut fourth-quarter forecasts.
AUTOMAKERS
Honda reports Q1 loss
Honda Motor Co has reported a ¥93.4 billion (US$860 million) loss for the first quarter, as the Japanese automaker is hit by costs for a massive air bag recall and an unfavorable shift in exchange rates. Tokyo-based Honda reported an ¥81.9 billion profit in the same quarter of last year. The company on Friday said that quarterly sales rose 5 percent to ¥3.66 trillion as vehicle sales grew. For the fiscal year ended March, Honda’s profit plunged 32 percent to ¥344.5 billion, as quality-related expenses and the strong yen offset gains from cost cuts and strong performance in the North American market. Honda is the biggest customer of Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp.
EUROPEAN UNION
Lawmakers vote on China
EU lawmakers have voted against granting market economy status to China in a blow to Beijing’s hopes to win the stamp of economic approval by December. The lawmakers said in a resolution on Thursday that China’s excess production capacity and cut-price exports are having “strong social, economic and environmental consequences in the EU.” They noted that 56 of the EU’s current 73 anti-dumping measures apply to imports from China. The resolution was passed by 546 votes to 28, with 77 abstentions.
AUTOMAKERS
European car sales up
European carmakers recorded the highest sales volumes last month since just before the economic crisis bottomed out the market. The European automakers association ACEA yesterday said that car sales rose 9 percent last month compared with the previous year, for 1.27 million units, the highest volume since April 2008. Volkswagen AG brand sales continued to lag in the wake of the diesel scandal, up just 2.7 percent. Sales for the VW group, which also includes Audi, Porsche and Skoda, rose 5.4 percent. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, boosted by Jeep, and Toyota Motor Corp posted double-digit growth, along with premium carmakers BMW AG and Daimler AG.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained