WEAPONS
Remington files bankruptcy
US gunmaker Remington on Sunday filed for bankruptcy, as the Wmore than 200-year-old firearms manufacturer vies to restructure its massive debts. Remington had announced it would file for bankruptcy last month, just two days before a shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school that killed 17 people and reignited a national debate on gun control. The restructuring agreement would allow Remington to reduce about US$700 million of its consolidated debt, as well as inject a contribution of US$145 million of new capital into its operating subsidiaries, the company said.
FASHION
JD buys Finish Line
JD Sports Fashion PLC has agreed to buy US sportswear retailer Finish Line Inc, expanding into the North American market and snatching away a company in which Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct International PLC had built a stake. The takeover agreement is valued at US$13.50 per Finish Line share in cash, or a total of US$558 million. Due to the distinct geographies in which the two companies operate, JD Sports does not see any significant adjustments in headcount, the company said. The deal represents a 28 percent premium to Finish Line’s closing price on Friday.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Toshiba awaits approval
Embattled Japanese conglomerate Toshiba yesterday said it was still waiting for regulators to approve the key sale of its chip unit, a delay that could stymie plans to complete the deal this month. The firm agreed in September last year to sell its memorychip business to a consortium led by US investor Bain Capital, which was seen as crucial to keeping it afloat after multibillion-dollar losses. Under the deal, Toshiba had expected to meet all the sale conditions by Friday last week and complete them this Friday.
AUTOMAKERS
Great Wall goes global
Great Wall Motor Co (長城汽車), the king of sport utility vehicles in China, is feeling the rising heat from competition. After reporting earnings that more than halved last year, it is turning to potential customers abroad for its next phase of growth. The automaker plans to initially focus on countries such as Russia and those in the Middle East that have similar regulations as China, founder and chairman Wei Jianjun (魏建軍) told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday. The company will build its vehicles in Russia, with a factory capable of rolling out 80,000 vehicles annually set to start operations next year, he said. Plans to sell cars in the US starting 2021 are also on the cards, he said. Great Wall on Friday reported that its profit fell 52 percent last year to 5.03 billion yuan (US$796 million) as it spent more on incentives and discounts to help secure market share.
TECHNOLOGY
Google eyes China for AI
Google CEO Sundar Pichai expects China to play a crucial role in artificial intelligence (AI) as he keeps expanding the search giant’s workforce in the country, even as many of its services are blocked. Google has invested in Chinese start-ups, forged a patent alliance with Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and is pushing its TensorFlow AI tools in the country, despite key services, such as search and e-mail, remaining blocked. The company recently opened a research lab in Beijing focused on AI, a blossoming field but one at the center of tensions between China and the US. Google’s lab falls under its cloud unit, and the company has suggested it is open to entering China with that business if it is allowed to.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to