■ Media
Vivendi, GE create giant
Struggling French-American conglomerate Vivendi Universal has signed a deal with General Electric to sell 80 percent of its media and entertainment unit to the American corporation, both companies announced yesterday. General Electric is to own 80 percent and Vivendi 20 percent of the new entity, which will be formed from a merger of Vivendi Universal Entertain-ment and GE's media subsidiary, NBC, and is to be called NBC Universal. Instantly one of the world's largest media enterprises, with some US$13 billion in turnover, NBC Universal will comprise the NBC television network, cable networks CNBC, MSNBC and USA Network, Universal Pictures film studios and Universal Television programme distributor. In the deal, VUE shareholders will receive US$3.8 billion in cash, of which Vivendi Universal, as 86 percent owner, is to receive US$3.3 billion.
■ Real estate
Lone Star wins property bid
Lone Star Funds, a Texas-based investor, agreed to buy about ¥38 billion (US$342 million) of property from Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc, a Japanese bank that is bidding to cut its bad loans by half, bankers familiar with the plan said. Minami-Aoyama Building Ltd, a Tokyo-based developer financed by Sumitomo Mitsui, sold about 20 properties, mostly offices and apartments, the bankers said. Lone Star outbid Goldman Sachs Group Inc for the assets, they said. The sale is also part of Sumitomo Mitsui's bid to halve its bad loans by March 2005. Japan's second-biggest bank by assets had US$47 billion of bad debts as of March, the most as a percentage of total loans among the nation's four biggest lenders.
■ Telemarketing
`No-call' list clears courts
A federal appeals court cleared the way Tuesday for the Federal Trade Commission to finally start running its national do-not-call list, pending a court fight over whether the registry violates the industry's free-speech rights. The 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals said the FTC could run the registry while a challenge from telemarketers winds its way through the courts. Oral arguments were scheduled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for Nov. 10. Telemarketers will not be allowed to call people who have registered on the do-not-call list when the program is implemented. US District Judge Edward Nottingham of Denver had barred the FTC from putting the registry into effect because the list unfairly blocks calls from businesses but not charities. In staying his ruling, the appeals court suggested that conclusion was too broad.
■ Economic policy
S&P raises debt ratings
Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia had their debt ratings raised to their highest levels since the 1997 Asian financial crisis by Standard & Poor's, which praised leaders in the three countries for improving government finances. Indonesia's long-term foreign currency rating was raised one level to B, five levels below investment grade and the same as Pakistan. Thailand's rating was raised to BBB, two levels above junk. Malaysia was raised one level to A-, the fourth-lowest investment grade and on a par with South Korea. Surging exports and consumer spending are helping revive economic growth and tax revenues across Southeast Asia, six years after the devaluation of the Thai baht triggered recessions across the region. Standard & Poor's said the three countries' political leaderships are stable.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)