NEW ZEALAND
Central bank maintains rate
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand yesterday left its base rate at a record low of 1.75 percent, saying long-term inflation forecasts remained on target. The central bank said the official cash rate was unlikely to move in the short term. “The growth outlook remains positive, supported by accommodative monetary policy, strong population growth and high terms of trade,” bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said. “Monetary policy will remain accommodative for a considerable period.” The bank has an inflation target of 1 percent to 3 percent, and Wheeler said long-term forecasts put price rises right in the mid-point at 2 percent.
LIQUOR
Diageo to buy Casamigos
Global liquor behemoth Diageo PLC on Wednesday said it would pay up to US$1 billion to buy a tequila brand cofounded by movie star George Clooney. Clooney founded the Casamigos brand four years ago with partners Rande Gerber and Mike Meldma. Diageo said it would pay US$700 million for Casamigos at first, followed by another US$300 million over 10 years if the brand reaches certain performance milestones. London-based Diageo’s other brands include Johnnie Walker, Guinness and Captain Morgan. Diageo said the founders would continue to promote Casamigos and have a say in its future. The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Snap buys social mapper
Snap Inc has acquired Zenly, a French start-up that makes a social map so people can see where their friends are hanging out, for US$200 million in cash plus additional stock awards, a person familiar with the matter said. Los Angeles-based Snap bought Zenly late last month and has already turned the product into a feature on its main Snapchat application that lets users see friends’ photographs and video posts by location, the person said. The tool uses bitmoji — animated cartoon avatars users can personalize to depict themselves — as the markers on the map.
REAL ESTATE
Las Vegas enacts new rules
Las Vegas property owners interested in renting out their properties for brief periods will have to comply with new rules meant to crack down on a booming short-term rental industry. The requirements passed on Wednesday include proof of liability insurance for US$500,000 and placement of letter-size placards outside the properties with contact information and maximum allowed occupancy. They come as complaints over raucous parties at short-term rentals have mounted over the years. The new regulations also call for additional parking spots for some properties.
SOFTWARE
Oracle extends profit growth
Oracle Corp’s push into cloud computing is picking up momentum, sparking a fourth straight quarter of revenue gains for the software maker. The company on Wednesday reported its adjusted revenue increased 3 percent to US$10.9 billion in the period ended May 31. On average, analysts had projected US$10.5 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg showed. Oracle’s cloud businesses grew 58 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter. Profit, excluding some costs, was US$0.89 per share, topping the estimate of US$0.78. Net income rose 15 percent to US$3.2 billion. Shares of Oracle rose as much as 12 percent in extended trading after the earnings were released. The stock closed at a record US$46.33 in New York.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day