■ Airlines
Virgin Blue IPO price set
Australian domestic airline Virgin Blue will be worth between A$1.9 billion and A$2.3 billion (US$1.33 billion and US$1.61 billion) when it lists on the local stock exchange, a major stake holder said yesterday. In a prospectus for Virgin Blue's long-awaited initial public offering, transport and logistics group Patrick Corp said shares would be priced between A$1.80 and A$2.25 (US$1.26 and US$1.57) when they are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on Dec. 8. Patrick has a 45 percent stake in the airline, which was launched in 2000 by British entrepreneur Richard Branson and flies to cities throughout Australia. It is due to begin flights between Australia and New Zealand early next year.
■ Mobile Phones
Motorola cuts 2,400 jobs
Motorola Inc, the world's second-largest maker of mobile telephones, will eliminate 2,400 jobs by the first quarter, on top of the 6,600 it has cut through the first nine months of this year. The additional cuts will cost about US$131 million in severance pay, Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola said in a quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Motorola has already paid US$328 million this year for the previous reductions, according to the filing dated Nov. 4. Spokeswoman Jennifer Weyrauch didn't immediately return calls to her cell and home phone numbers Sunday evening. Motorola has discontinued product lines, exited businesses and consolidated operations as it has lost market share to rivals, including Finland's Nokia Oyj, the world's No. 1 maker of mobile phones.
■ Music Industry
Pepsi to promote iTunes
Apple Computer Inc, the maker of iPod digital music players, plans a joint promotion with PepsiCo Inc, the world's second-largest soft-drink maker, to promote its online music service iTunes, the Wall Street Journal reported citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. Apple, based in Cupertino, California will offer 100 million songs from iTunes to consumers when they find a code inside the bottle tops of PepsiCo's soft drinks, and the promotion is set to begin during the US Superbowl on Feb. 1; Apple may also start a promotion with McDonald's Corp although both companies declined to comment, the paper said. Roxio Inc, owner of the Napster Internet music-sharing service and RealNetworks Inc are also vying to dominate the online music business.
■ Foreign Exchange
Japan's reserves get boost
Japan's foreign exchange reserves -- the world's largest -- hit yet another record high of US$626.27 billion in October after the government intervened on a massive scale in a bid to stem the yen's steep rise, the finance ministry said Monday. The October reserves jumped by US$21.40 billion from the previous month, when they were at a then-record US$604.87 billion, the ministry said. "The most significant factor [in driving up the October figure] was market intervention," said a ministry official. Japanese authorities spent some ?2.72 trillion (US$24.73 billion) between Sept. 27 through Oct. 29 trying to stop the yen's rise against the dollar, the official said. In the July-September quarter, Japan spent ?7.55 trillion to carry out yen-selling market intervention, the ministry said. The cumulative total for the year so far, already a record high, would come to around ?17 trillion by Oct. 29, ministry figures showed.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft