ACQUISITIONS
Buffett backs Yahoo bids
Berkshire Hathaway Inc chairman Warren Buffett is backing a group bidding for Yahoo Inc’s Internet assets, people familiar with the matter said. The consortium, which includes Quicken Loans Inc founder Dan Gilbert, is in the second round of bidding for Yahoo’s assets, the people said. Yahoo received more than 10 initial offers last month, with the bids ranging from about US$4 billion to US$8 billion, the people said.
AUTOMAKERS
Subaru recalls over steering
Subaru is telling owners of some newer Legacy and Outback vehicles not to drive them because the steering can fail. The company is recalling about 52,000 of the cars and SUVs from its 2016 and 2017 models. It also has told dealers to stop selling them until they are repaired. Subaru on Friday said the steering columns might have been manufactured improperly by a parts supplier. The columns might not engage properly with the rest of the steering system, which could cause the driver to lose the ability to steer.
GAMING
Supercell could be for sale
Softbank Group Corp is considering a sale of its stake in Supercell Oy after receiving interest in the Finnish gaming company, according to people familiar with the matter. Supercell, which makes games for mobile phones including Clash of Clans and Boom Beach, has held talks with potential strategic buyers based in China, the people said. A sale could value the whole of Supercell at more than US$5 billion, one of the people said.
ENTERTAINMENT
Caesars considers proposals
Caesars Entertainment Corp, the ailing casino company, has received multiple, unsolicited bids for its interactive gaming unit, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The bids value Caesars Interactive Entertainment at about $4 billion, said one of the people. The company will consider the proposals, they said. Caesars Interactive is one of the largest players in the market for casino-style games on Facebook, with titles such as Slotomania and Bingo Blitz.
BANKING
SWIFT warns of cyberheist
SWIFT, the global financial messaging network that banks use to move billions of dollars every day, warned on Thursday of a second malware attack similar to the one that led to February’s US$81 million cyberheist at the Bangladesh central bank. The second case targeted a commercial bank, SWIFT spokeswoman Natasha de Teran said, without naming it. It was not immediately clear how much money, if any, was stolen in the second attack, but a UK-based security firm, BAE Systems PLC, said it believes the second victim is a commercial bank in Vietnam.
Venezuela
Imports to be cut by half
The government, pledging to do what it takes to keep current on its debt, is to cut imports by almost half this year to preserve hard currency even as people struggle with shortages of basic goods and soaring inflation. “We’ve applied a very austere program,” Vice President for Economic Policy Miguel Perez Abad said, adding that imports would probably fall to about US$20 billion this year from US$37 billion last year.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to