CARMAKERS
GM to downsize Ohio plant
General Motors (GM) on Sunday confirmed its plans to eliminate a shift at an Ohio plant, idling about 1,500 employees as demand for compact cars dips. The downsizing of the workforce in Lordstown, Ohio, was related to “historic” market changes that spelled lower demand for compact cars, company spokeswoman Dayna Hart said. “As we look at the market for compact cars in 2018 and beyond, we believe a more stable operating approach to match market demand is a one-shift schedule,” Hart said, adding that the second shift would be suspended toward the end of the second quarter. She said the company did not plan to abandon the passenger car market completely. “The car market remains important to GM and Chevrolet since it represents 36 percent of industry retail sales. The small car segment also brings new and conquest customers to Chevrolet,” Hart said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Advent set to buy division
Advent International Corp is close to acquiring Sanofi’s European generics division in a deal valued at about 2 billion euros (US$2.47 billion) including debt, people with knowledge of the matter said. The French drugmaker’s board was scheduled to meet as early as yesterday to sign off on the deal, which could be announced in the coming days, the people said. No final decision has been made and the talks might still fall apart, they added. An accord would signal the culmination of a process that began more than two years ago as CEO Olivier Brandicourt started to shift the firm’s focus to biotechnology and new medicines. The sale would add to the more than US$15 billion in transactions that Sanofi has announced so far this year, including the acquisition of Bioverativ Inc to expand in hemophilia treatments and Ablynx NV to gain an experimental medicine for another rare bleeding disorder.
INSURANCE
Prudential eyes Asia
Prudential PLC is boosting its technology investment in Asia as part of plans to double earnings in the region in coming years. The UK insurer is to raise annual spending by 20 percent to £300 million (US$429 million) from this year in areas such as automation and online sales and support to attract younger customers who are increasingly expecting instant service, Asia operation chief executive Nic Nicandrou said. “Technology initiatives, including automation, are one of the key drivers to achieving Prudential’s growth ambitions in Asia,” Nicandrou said, adding that he expects earnings in the region to double every five to seven years. Technology would enable Prudential to bring in more clients by shortening the time to issue policies to minutes from days and expanding an online chat service to deal with queries, Nicandrou said.
MUSIC
Firm-focused service grows
Soundtrack Your Brand, the Spotify Technology SA-backed streaming service that targets businesses rather than consumers, has expanded its catalog to 26 million songs after securing licensing deals with rights holders including Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the world’s largest music publisher. The agreements include a per-stream-based compensation model to pay artists and composers accurately from retailers, restaurants and hotels, CEO and cofounder Ola Sars said. “The market for background music or commercial music services has been dysfunctional and is still 10 years behind the consumer streaming services,” Sars said. “This represents a significant area of growth for the entire music industry.”
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last