BANKING
Senior Wells Fargo staff fired
Wells Fargo’s board of directors fired four senior managers as part of its investigation into the bank’s sales practices scandal. Tuesday’s announcement is the first public firing of managers and executives since the bank acknowledged in September last year that its employees opened up to 2 million bank and credit card accounts without customer authorization in order to meet lofty sales goals. When the scandal first broke, Wells Fargo had said it had fired about 5,300 employees as a result of the scandal, the vast majority of them lower-level workers. Numerous branch employees have said that intense sales pressure from senior managers was at least partially why they were driven to open the accounts. The board said the four executives being terminated, effective immediately, were former community bank chief risk officer Claudia Anderson, Arizona lead regional president Pamela Conboy, former Los Angeles regional president Shelly Freeman and community bank’s strategy and initiatives head Matthew Raphaelson.
SOLAR ENERGY
First Solar report losses
First Solar Inc reported its biggest-ever loss after overhauling its manufacturing strategy and firing more than a quarter of its workforce. The bulk of its pain might be in the past. The largest US solar manufacturer posted a fourth-quarter net loss of US$719.9 million, largely due to a US$729 million restructuring charge, it said in a statement on Tuesday, but increased its sales forecast for this year. The Tempe, Arizona-based company announced in November last year plans to scrap a new panel design this year, the Series 5, while firing 1,600 workers and retooling its factories to produce the Series 6 starting in the middle of this year. The move came as a global oversupply helped drag panel prices down 35 percent last year. Sales last year slipped 18 percent to US$2.95 billion last year, but might be close to flat this year as chief executive officer Mark Widmar’s plans start to take effect.
TAXATION
Companies push border tax
Chief executive officers of 16 companies, including Boeing Co, Caterpillar Inc and General Electric Co, have urged the US Congress to pass a comprehensive tax code rewrite, including a controversial border tax. In a letter to Republican and Democratic leadership on Tuesday, the chief executives said a Republican-proposed border adjustment tax would make US-manufactured products more competitive abroad and at home by making imported goods face the same level of taxation. It was the latest move in a back-and-forth lobbying effort from companies over changes to the US tax code.
RETAIL
Holidays benefit Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores benefited from increased sales in US stores and online during the critical holiday shopping quarter, although earnings fell on higher expenses, according to results released on Tuesday. The world’s biggest retailer saw net income fall about 18 percent in the fourth quarter to US$3.8 billion compared with the final three months of 2015. Revenues rose 1 percent to US$130.9 billion. The results underscored the benefits and drawbacks of the retailers increased investment in employee wages, store beautification and e-commerce in a bid to fend off competition from Amazon.com Inc and others. Shoppers are returning to stores and buying more, but profit margins are down. Comparable sales at US Wal-Mart stores rose a solid 1.8 percent.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks