PETROLEUM
Bashneft deal postponed
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has postponed the privatization of mid-sized oil producer Bashneft, his spokeswoman said on Tuesday, a surprise move she said was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The privatization of Bashneft was meant to be one of the crown jewels of this year’s privatization program and was set to pit some of Russia’s most powerful businesspeople and officials against each other. Medvedev spokeswoman Natalia Timakova did not say how long the Bashneft stake sale had been delayed for. Russia had planned to auction a 50 percent stake in Bashneft, part of a drive to plug holes in the government budget caused by a slump in oil prices and Western sanctions imposed over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
INTERNET
Twitch acquires Curse
Amazon-owned video game broadcasting platform Twitch on Tuesday bolstered its service with the purchase of a US company that targets media and technology to gamers. Twitch did not disclose financial terms of the deal to acquire Curse, which has an array of game-focused Web sites and apps that it says draw 30 million visitors monthly. Along with gaming Web sites, news, videos, guides and databases, Curse is known for chat software that lets gamers communicate online as they compete in eSports using desktop computers.
MEDIA
Univision wins Gawker bid
Spanish-language broadcaster Univision won an auction on Tuesday for Gawker Media, which was put on the block in the aftermath of a US$140 million judgment against it in the Hulk Hogan invasion-of-privacy case. Univision is paying US$135 million for the online gossip and news publisher, according to a person familiar with the matter. Univision outbid Ziff Davis, the owner of tech and gaming sites, in the auction. They were the only two bidders, according to a person familiar with the bankruptcy auction. A judge must still approve the sale at a hearing today.
BREWERIES
Carlsberg downbeat on H2
Carlsberg A/S forecast slower earnings growth in the second half as inflation adds to costs in Russia, where it sells one-third of the country’s beer. Organic operating profit would rise about 1 percent after gaining 8 percent in the first half, chief executive officer Cees ’t Hart said yesterday. Carlsberg said adverse currency swings would cut profit by 600 million kroner (US$90.79 million) in the full year, up from a previous estimate of 550 million kroner. Earnings before interest, taxes and one-time items fell to 3.45 billion Danish kroner in the first half. The company is also pulling out of markets where growth is slowing, such as Malawi and some operations in Finland and Poland.
AVIATION
Cathay misses estimates
Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd (國泰航空), Asia’s biggest international airline, reported first-half profit that missed analyst estimates after posting losses from jet-fuel hedges and passenger yields declined amid competition with Chinese carriers. Net income in the six months through June fell 82 percent to HK$353 million (US$45.5 million), Cathay said in a statement yesterday. That fell short of the HK$1.07 billion median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of four analysts. Sales declined 9.3 percent to HK$45.7 billion.
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
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
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],”