INTERNET
Twitter credentials stolen
Tens of millions of stolen Twitter credentials evidently lifted from Web browser programs were put up for sale online, according to a search engine devoted to leaked data. Twitter Inc on Thursday was adamant that its computer systems had not been broken into by hackers and that it was not the source of any account information being hawked on the Internet. According to LeakedSource.com, it was Twitter users who were evidently hacked and not the San Francisco-based one-to-many messaging service.
INTERNET
Suitors bid for Yahoo
Several suitors are bidding US$5 billion or more for the core business of struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo Inc, CNBC reported on Thursday. Citing unnamed sources close to the situation, CNBC said Yahoo’s board of directors were to meet yesterday to review offers ahead of a final round of bidding expected to lead to a decision by the middle of next month. US telecom titan Verizon Communications Inc was among low bidders, offering more than US$3.5 billion for Yahoo, according to CNBC.
AVIATION
Airbus cuts Dassault stake
Airbus Group SE yesterday said it had started winding down its stake of just under a quarter in France’s Dassault Aviation SA after failing to draw sufficient benefits from its shareholding in the fellow aircraft maker. Airbus said it expects to gross 2.4 billion euros (US$2.7 billion) from the sale of its 23.6 percent in Dassault, which makes the Rafale fighter plane and the Falcon corporate jet. A first stage, a private sale of 9.05 percent in Dassault, was completed yesterday, Airbus said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Merck buying Afferent
Drugmaker Merck & Co is buying Afferent Pharmaceuticals Inc, a privately held biotechnology company developing a chronic cough medication. Merck said it has agreed to pay US$500 million up front for Afferent Pharmaceuticals and up to US$750 million more if the company meets goals for approval and eventual sales of medicines in development. Afferent Pharmaceuticals focuses on creating treatments for “neurogenic conditions” — health problems caused when certain nerves become hypersensitive, for months or years, following an infection, injury or inflammation.
CHARITY
Buffett auctions lunch
Billionaire Warren Buffett has raised more than US$20 million for a San Francisco homeless charity since 2000 and he was to add to that total by auctioning off a private lunch. The weeklong eBay auction that began on Sunday was set to wrap up yesterday night. Six of the past eight winners paid more than US$2 million to dine with Buffett, the investor who leads the Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, with the record so far coming in 2012, when the winning bid was US$3,456,789.
SPAIN
Home sales hit record
Home sales jumped the most since 2008 in April as the nation’s economy continues to recover from the financial crisis. Transactions increased 29 percent in the month from the year earlier period, the National Statistics Institute said on Thursday. That was the fastest clip since the institute started publishing the data in January 2008. A separate report showed that home values increased by 6.3 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, the largest gain since the third quarter of 2007.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last