SOUTH KOREA
Export decline to soften
Early trade figures for this month showed that exports could be headed for their smallest monthly decline since April, offering a sign that a year-long stretch of declines linked to weak global tech demand might be starting to ease. Exports during the first 20 days of this month fell 9.6 percent from a year earlier, the Korea Customs Service said yesterday. While the figures point to a 12th straight monthly drop in exports amid weakness in the global tech sector and a further slowing of China’s economy, a smaller decline offers a sign that the worst might be over.
INTERNET
PayPal buying Honey
Payments platform PayPal Holdings Inc said it is buying shopping and rewards company Honey Science Corp for US$4 billion. Founded in 2012, California-based Honey helps people find online coupons and discounts while they shop online. It has about 17 million monthly users. The acquisition would help PayPal’s merchants attract new customers by offering personalized deals and offers, PayPal said on Wednesday. It also hopes to reach shoppers earlier, not just when they are paying at checkout, it said. Honey is to keep its headquarters in Los Angeles and its cofounders are to join PayPal, which is based in San Jose, PayPal said.
UNITED STATES
Fed ousts negative talk
US central bankers last month dismissed the idea of taking interest rates into negative territory, according to meeting minutes released on Wednesday. Evidence for the benefits of negative interest rates — lenders must pay borrowers rather than the other way around — has proven “mixed” in countries where it has been tried, members of the US Federal Reserve’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee said. However, the minutes also said that Fed members believe further rate cuts should be unnecessary in the near term, barring major changes to the outlook.
INDIA
Privatization drive initiated
The nation launched its biggest privatization drive in more than a decade, offering majority stakes in three state-owned companies in a bid to raise funds to bridge a widening fiscal gap and boost a slowing economy. The Cabinet committee on economic affairs on Wednesday said it would sell the government’s entire stake in the nation’s second-largest state refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp, and its largest shipping company, Shipping Corp of India Ltd. It also approved transferring ownership of Container Corp of India Ltd, Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said in New Delhi. A proposal to pare stakes below 51 percent in some companies, while still retaining control, was also approved.
ENTERTAINMENT
Sony seeks Indian network
Sony Corp is in talks to acquire a stake in the Indian television network controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, people familiar with the matter said. The Tokyo-based company is conducting due diligence on Ambani’s Network18 Media & Investments Ltd before any possible offer, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is not public. Sony is considering several potential deal structures, including a bid for the company or a merger of its own Indian business with Network18’s entertainment channels, one of the people said. Talks are at a preliminary stage and might not result in a transaction, the people said.
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],”