INTERNET
Idealo files Google suit
Berlin-based Idealo GmbH, a German price comparison platform, on Friday said it has filed a suit against Alphabet Inc’s Google search business over allegations that it has abused its dominant position by favoring its own price comparison service in search results. Idealo said it had submitted the complaint to the state court in Berlin. Idealo said its suit is based on a 2017 decision by the European Commission to fine Google 2.42 billion euros (US$2.74 billion at the current exchange rate) for giving unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Merck to buy Versum
German chemicals and pharmaceuticals giant Merck KgaA on Friday said that it had signed a 5.8 billion euro deal to buy Arizona-based Versum Materials Inc, which supplies chemicals, gases and equipment for semiconductor manufacturing. With sales of about 1.2 billion euros last year and 2,300 employees across Asia and North America, Versum would be integrated into Merck’s “performance materials” division, it said.
AUTOMOTIVE
Chinese sales decline
China’s auto sales fell again last month, but the contraction was smaller than in recent months, an industry group reported on Friday. Sales of sports utility vehicles, sedans and minivans in the industry’s biggest global market fell 6.9 percent from a year earlier to just over 2 million, the China Association of Auto Manufacturers said. It was the ninth straight month of declines, but an improvement over the 17.5 percent contraction in January and February.
INDIA
Growth target outlined
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said the expansion of the world’s fastest-growing major economy needs to pick up to about 8 percent to deal with poverty and other challenges. While the past few years’ average growth of about 7.5 percent was impressive, “the expectation is India can be better,” Das said at an IMF event in Washington on Friday. The nation is expected to post real economic growth of 7.2 percent in the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
BANKING
JPMorgan profits rise
JPMorgan Chase & Co on Friday reported higher first-quarter profits, pointing to a still-solid US economy reflected in more lending and better profit margins on loans. Earnings at the biggest US bank by assets were US$9.2 billion, up 5.4 percent from the first quarter of last year. Revenue was US$29.9 billion, up 4.7 percent. A strong performance in the consumer and community banking division — the biggest segment by revenue — was the driver of higher earnings compared with a year earlier.
INTERNET
Executives to leave Facebook
Netflix Inc CEO Reed Hastings is to depart Facebook Inc’s board of directors at the end of next month. Neither Hastings nor businessman and political figure Erskine Bowles, who have been on the board since 2011, would be nominated for re-election at an annual shareholders meeting on May 30, Facebook said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in