BIOTECHNOLOGY
Amgen to invest in BeiGene
Amgen Inc on Thursday said it would take a 20.5 percent stake in BeiGene Ltd in a deal to expand the US biotechnology company’s presence in China, the world’s second-largest pharmaceutical market. Amgen said it woul pay about US$2.7 billion in cash, or US$174.85 per BeiGene American depositary share, for the stake in BeiGene, which would commercialize three Amgen cancer drugs in China. The two companies would also collaborate on the development of Amgen’s oncology pipeline.
HONG KONG
Economy falls into recession
The economy shrank 3.2 percent sequentially in the July-September quarter, pushing the territory into a technical recession, the government said. That makes two straight quarters of contraction since the economy contracted 0.5 percent in April-June on a quarterly basis. The once-common lines of Chinese shoppers outside Hong Kong’s glittering luxury stores are gone. Jewelry stores have no customers and related businesses like transportation are languishing. The data showed private spending and exports falling sharply. The forecast for the year is for a contraction, given “the lack of any signs of improvement in the near term,” the government said.
AUTOMAKERS
Ford offers bonus, shutdown
Workers are to get US$9,000 signing bonuses if they ratify a new four-year contract with Ford Motor Co, but the company would be able to close a factory in the deal, a person briefed on the matter said. The person, who did not want to be identified because the contract has not been explained to workers, said that Ford would close an engine plant in Romeo, Michigan. The factory’s 600 union workers would be offered buyouts or jobs at a transmission plant in nearby Sterling Heights, Michigan. Ford on Wednesday night reached a tentative four-year contract agreement with the United Auto Workers union on Wednesday night. The union said it secured more than US$6 billion in product investments at US factories, which would create or keep more than 8,500 jobs.
INTERNET
India calls out WhatsApp
India on Thursday demanded answers from WhatsApp over a snooping scandal after coming under fire from critics who accused authorities of using malware to spy on citizens. WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit in the US against Israeli technology firm NSO Group, accusing it of using the hugely popular instant messaging platform to conduct cyberespionage on nearly 1,400 journalists, diplomats, dissidents and human right activists worldwide. The Israeli firm has denied journalists and activists were targeted and said that it only licenses its software to governments for “fighting crime and terror.” Nearly two dozen activists, lawyers, and journalists were targeted in India, media reports said.
AUTOMAKERS
Conte backs auto merger
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he would welcome any merger agreement involving Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot that improves the productivity of local plants, guarantees jobs and preserves investments. The government wants to see “the company’s continuity here in Italy... What is important is to guarantee the level of company jobs and investment here in Italy, that is what we are pushing for.” Fiat Chrysler has pledged to invest 5 billion euros (US$5.57 billion) on new engines and models in Italy to make better use of its plants.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six