TECHNOLOGY
Google to buy Moodstocks
Google yesterday announced a deal to buy Moodstocks, a French start-up behind technology that helps smartphones recognize whatever they are aimed at. Moodstocks caught the US technology giant’s eye for its work in computer vision and machine learning, as well for accomplishments in enabling smartphones or other mobile devices to recognize images and objects. The Moodstocks team, described as a small group of researchers and engineers, is to join a Google research and development center in Paris. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
MANUFACTURING
Melrose unveils Nortek deal
Engineering turnaround specialist Melrose Industries PLC said it had agreed to buy Nortek Inc in a cash deal valuing the US-based residential products maker at US$1.436 billion. The offer of US$86 per Nortek share represents a premium of about 38 percent based on Nortek’s close on Tuesday. The acquisition is to give Melrose access to Nortek’s large exposure to the North American ventilation and home-security products market. Melrose said it planned to improve the Nortek’s business by increasing investment in its manufacturing facilities, scouting for complementary acquisitions and improving the US business’ supply chain and reach to customers.
MINING
Thompson Creek deal inked
Centerra Gold Inc agreed to acquire Thompson Creek Metals Co for about C$175.8 million (US$135 million) to expand in North America. All of the Thompson Creek issued and outstanding common shares are to be exchanged on the basis of 0.0988 of a Centerra common share, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. Including debt, the deal is valued at US$1.1 billion. Thompson Creek controls the Mount Milligan mine, which is in central British Columbia, and has 997.9 billion kilograms of provable and probable copper reserves and 5.7 million ounces of gold reserves, according to Thompson Creek’s Web site.
TRADE
German factory orders rise
Strong demand for German-made goods from eurozone neighbors offset a drop in domestic orders in May, key factory orders data showed yesterday. “Low domestic orders and from non-eurozone countries were made up for by high levels of orders from eurozone countries,” the German Ministry of the Economy said in a statement. Factory orders were unchanged in May from April in seasonally adjusted terms, the ministry said. Domestic orders fell by 1.9 percent, while foreign orders rose by 1.4 percent, with non-eurozone business slipping by 0.3 percent, while orders from within the eurozone jumped 4 percent. The figures showed a “below average” level of big-ticket orders, the ministry said.
TRANSPORT
British car registrations fall
British new car registrations fell for only the second time in more than four years last month, while an industry body urged the British government to boost economic confidence to avoid further drops. Sales fell 0.8 percent year-on-year to 255,766 units, the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said yesterday. It said it was too early to link the fall to the result of the referendum in favor of leaving the EU. Ratings agency Fitch said on Tuesday that there will probably be a decline in British new vehicle sales due to slower economic growth and weaker consumer confidence.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the