BRAZIL
Interest rate cut to record low
The Central Bank of Brazil on Wednesday cut the key interest rate to a record low of 7 percent, about half of what it was a year ago. The 0.5 percentage point drop in the Selic rate reflected the strong fall in inflation as the nation emerges from a two-year recession. President Michel Temer hailed the rate drop in a video posted on social media. “With lower interest rates, clearly it is easier to live, work, buy and find housing,” he said, adding that “this lowers rates throughout the whole banking system.”
GERMANY
Production dips second month
Industrial production unexpectedly declined for a second month in October as workers took extra days off, interrupting a run that put Europe’s largest economy on track toward its best performance in six years. Output declined 1.4 percent from September, when it fell a revised 0.9 percent, the Ministry for Economic Affairs said yesterday. The reading, which is typically volatile, compares with forecasts for a 0.9 percent gain in a Bloomberg survey. Production was up 2.7 percent from a year earlier.
TECHNOLOGY
Chips hike Broadcom profit
Broadcom Ltd on Wednesday reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit, helped by robust demand for its wireless chips from customers, including Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Net income attributable to ordinary shares was US$636 million, or US$1.50 per share, in the fourth quarter ended on Oct. 29, compared with a loss of US$632 million, or US$1.59 per share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company earned US$4.59 per share. Net revenue rose to US$4.84 billion from US$4.14 billion. Analysts on average had expected earnings of US$4.52 per share on revenue of US$4.83 billion.
START-UPS
Saverin to invest in Mswipe
Facebook Inc cofounder Eduardo Saverin is participating in a US$40 million investment in Mswipe Technologies, his first foray into the India start-up market. Saverin’s B Capital Group and DSG Consumer Partners are leading the funding round, which also includes Ratan Tata’s UC-RNT Fund, Matrix Partners India and Falcon Edge Capital. Saverin will join the company’s board and work with its management on expansion.
INTERNET
Amazon partners with Apple
Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc have partnered to bring the Amazon Prime Video app to Apple TV in more than 100 countries, the companies said on Wednesday. The news came a day after Alphabet Inc’s Google said it would block its YouTube video streaming application from two of Amazon’s devices and criticized the online retailer for not selling Google hardware. Apple TV, a device for watching movies and television over the Internet, will also start featuring live sports from its own Apple TV app this week.
GAMBLING
Industry to consolidate more
GVC Holdings PLC is in advanced talks to acquire UK bookmaker Ladbrokes Coral Group PLC for as much as £3.9 billion (US$5.2 billion) in a deal that would accelerate the consolidation of the betting industry. The companies said in a statement yesterday that they are in detailed discussions about combining via a scheme of arrangement, a UK merger process under which 75 percent of voting shareholders of the target company must approve a deal.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six