■Telecoms
PCCW trading suspended
Shares of PCCW Ltd, Hong Kong's biggest phone company, were suspended from trading a day after a British newspaper reported it may make an offer for UK phone and Internet company Cable & Wireless Plc. PCCW will make a statement clarifying the report in the Sunday Times about a separate bid for a unit of Japan Telecom Holdings Co, said PCCW spokeswoman Joan Wagner. The spread on PCCW's dollar-denominated bonds widened after Moody's Investors Service said on Feb. 7 it may cut the senior unsecured debt rating of PCCW-HKT Ltd and three other units. It cited concern about the debt implications of PCCW's changing acquisition strategy. "People are concerned about the finances: Are they going to issue more debt?" said Patrick Chia, a bond fund manager at Credit Agricole Asset Management, who holds PCCW bonds.
■ Electronics
Sony set to scrap boards
Sony Corp, the world's No. 2 consumer-electronics maker, is planning to reorganize its global management to help integrate its electronics, entertainment and game businesses, the Financial Times said, citing Sony's chairman. Sony will probably disband the boards of both its Sony Music and Sony Pictures units. "In future we don't need one legal music board or one movie board, but maybe one board for American management," Sony Chairman Nobuyuki Idei said, according to the newspaper's Web site. Sony said profit in its latest quarter ended Dec.
31 almost doubled, buoyed by box-office hits such as Spider-Man and sales of video games for its PlayStation2 console.
■ Processors
AMD prepares faster chip
Advanced Micro Devices Inc, will start selling a faster personal-computer processor to narrow the performance gap with its top rival, Intel Corp. AMD's Athlon XP 3000+ is the first of two processors to store 640KB of memory on the chip, a record amount for a desktop processor, spokeswoman Catherine Abbinanti said. Storing more data on the chip lowers the time it takes to perform chores such as deliver audio and video. Advanced Micro, which has lost market share to faster Intel chips that have been lower in price, is trying to reverse the trend by narrowing the performance gap. Advanced Micro wants the 3000+ and a faster 3200+ scheduled for midyear to hold users over until September when it delivers a chip that digests data in 64b chunks, twice as big as Intel desktop chips.
■ Economy
China ready to reform
China will name technocrats as the new heads of economic planning, finance and taxation ministries, the South China Morning Post said, citing unidentified people. State Council Deputy Secretary General Ma Kai will probably replace Zeng Peiyan as head of the State Development Planning Commission, the paper said. Zeng, who was injured in a car accident last month, will probably become a vice premier, it said. State Administration of Taxation Director-General Jin Renqing will become the new executive deputy minister of finance, the paper said. Jin may then replace current Minister of Finance Xiang Huaicheng if Xiang is promoted to state councilor responsible for finance and taxation at the National People's Congress next month.
Agencies
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