The National Enquirer, which is under fire for paying hush money to a former model linked to US President Donald Trump, is on the auction block.
The parent of the supermarket tabloid on Wednesday said that it is exploring a possible sale as part of a “strategic review” of its tabloid business.
The decision by American Media Inc comes after the tabloid said it paid US$150,000 to keep Karen McDougal quiet about an alleged affair with Trump and being accused by Amazon.com Inc chief executive officer Jeff Bezos of blackmail.
American Media said that it was considering a sale so it could focus more on other parts of its business, including its brand for teenagers and broadcast platforms.
“Because of this focus, we feel the future opportunities with the tabloids can be best exploited by a different ownership,” American Media chief executive officer David Pecker said in a statement.
Pecker is a longtime Trump ally who helped bury potentially embarrassing stories about Trump over the years by paying hush money in a tabloid practice called “catch-and-kill.”
In August last year, the US attorney’s office in Manhattan agreed not to prosecute American Media in exchange for the company’s cooperation in its investigation of alleged campaign violations in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.
American Media came under fire more recently from Bezos for what he said were threats to publish photographs of him unless he stopped investigating how the tabloid obtained private exchanges between him and his mistress.
Bezos accused the tabloid of blackmail in a public blog post.
American Media recently refinanced hundreds of millions of dollars of debt after years of heavy borrowing and acquisitions.
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],”