VIDEO GAMES
Nintendo to offer seak peek
Japanese video game giant Nintendo Co yesterday said it is to offer gamers a sneak peek at a long-awaited new console that could be key to boosting its bottom line. The Super Mario maker was planning to put a three-minute video about the “console with a completely new concept” on its Web site at 11pm Japan time yesterday. “It’s a short video, but please take a look,” it said on Twitter. The Kyoto-based firm has not given any details about the new console, codenamed NX, except that it is to be launched in March next year.
FOOD AND DRINK
Nestle profits edge up
Nestle SA yesterday reported its sales for the first nine months of this year rose 1 percent year-on-year to 65.5 billion Swiss francs (US$66.25 billion), as the Swiss food and drinks giant focuses on volume growth at a time of soft pricing. Company chief executive officer Paul Bulcke hailed “broad-based growth” and said Nestle is working to become “leaner.” Nestle said the greatest organic growth — which excludes the impact of acquisitions — was in the Americas region at 4.8 percent. It said overall organic growth was 3.5 percent in the period and it expects that rate for the full year.
LIGHTING
Philips pushes target back
Philips Lighting NV pushed back a target for revenue growth until next year after third-quarter sales slumped in the Middle East and Turkey. Comparable revenue dropped 3 percent to 1.7 billion euros (US$1.87 billion) during the three months ending Sept. 30, the Amsterdam-based company spun off from Royal Philips NV said in a statement yesterday. Net income was 51 million euros compared with 73 million euros during the same period last year, beating an average estimate of 32 million euros by analysts polled by Bloomberg. “We experienced tougher market conditions,” the firm’s chief executive officer Eric Rondolat said in an interview on Bloomberg TV.
UNITED STATES
Election uncertainty weighs
Uncertainty in advance of next month’s election is weighing on some business sectors in the country, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book survey said on Wednesday. The survey which collects the views of economists, business contacts and others in the 12 Federal Reserve districts, said most regions in the world’s largest economy continued to expand at a “modest or moderate pace.” Labor market conditions remained “tight,” with “modest” employment and wage gains, according to the survey, which is prepared in advance of a Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 monetary policy meeting. The strength of the US dollar also held back exports of manufactured goods, it said.
INVESTMENT
Qatar mulls SoftBank bet
Qatar is considering investing in the US$100 billion global technology fund formed by SoftBank Group Corp and Saudi Arabia, according to people familiar with the matter. SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son has visited Doha and other parts of the Gulf region in recent months to discuss investments with global investors, one of the people said. The Qatar Investment Authority sovereign wealth fund is considering an investment of billions of dollars, which would help diversify its economy away from oil, the people said. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Softbank are looking for additional commitments of about US$30 billion, the people said.
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
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
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