AIRLINES
BA to pay hack victims
British Airways (BA) is to pay compensation to customers whose data were stolen by a “sophisticated” and “malicious” hacking attack, chief executive Alex Cruz said yesterday. The carrier had revealed overnight that the personal and financial details of customers making bookings on its Web site and mobile phone app between Aug. 21 and Wednesday had been stolen. The airline has launched an urgent investigation into the data breach, which involved 380,000 bank cards.
PHILIPPINES
Governor signals rate hike
Central bank Governor Nestor Espenilla yesterday flagged another interest rate hike after inflation exceeded 6 percent last month for the first time in nine years. “We’re dealing with multiple shocks from different origins, so we’ll need both strong non-monetary and monetary policy responses to quell inflation concerns decisively,” Espenilla said in a mobile phone message. Espenilla has already delivered 100 basis points of rate increases since May, including a 50 basis-point hike last month. The central bank is to next meet to decide on interest rates on Sept. 27.
TRADE
Trump could target Japan
US President Donald Trump remains focused on reducing US trade deficits with key economic partners, and Japan might be the next target, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. With trade disputes in full swing with China and as yet unresolved with the EU, Canada and Mexico, Trump now seems focused on making Japan “pay,” the column said. The US last year had a deficit of US$56.6 billion with Japan, but a surplus in services of US$13.4 billion.
INVESTMENT
HNA to exit Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG’s largest investor, HNA Group Co (海航集團), plans to exit its entire stake in the German lender, people briefed on the plan said yesterday. The cash-strapped conglomerate, which still held almost 8 percent of the voting rights, has started the disposal process as part of a government demand to focus on its airline business, the people said. It is not clear how and over what time period HNA would sell the stake, which it controls through a series of complex derivatives. Dow Jones earlier yesterday reported that Beijing had told HNA to exit the stake.
ELECTRONICS
Broadcom predicts strong Q4
Chipmaker Broadcom Inc gave a quarterly sales forecast that topped analysts’ estimates on strong demand for data-center semiconductors. Revenue is to be about US$5.4 billion, plus or minus US$75 million, in the fiscal fourth quarter, which ends next month, the San Jose, California-based company said on Thursday. Broadcom’s net income was US$1.2 billion, or US$2.71 a share, in the third quarter, compared with US$507 million, or US$1.14 a share, during the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 13 percent to US$5.06 billion.
TECHNOLOGY
EU approves Shazam bid
The EU has approved Apple Inc’s acquisition of song-recognition app Shazam after a months-long investigation found it would not hurt competition in the music streaming market. The EU’s Antitrust Commission on Thursday said that competing providers would not be shut out of the market following the acquisition. Apple last year announced that it was going to buy Shazam, which had been a competitor to its digital assistant Siri.
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
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],”