■ Telecom
AT&T faces takeover
AT&T Corp, the company that brought telephone service to US homes a century ago, will probably be the target of a takeover bid, Newsweek magazine reported, citing unidentified sources. Several former AT&T executives are working with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co (KKR), the world's biggest buyout firm, which in the past year approached AT&T about purchasing the company, Newsweek said. At least one other private-equity firm offered to buy Bedminster, New Jersey-based AT&T in the past year, the magazine said. AT&T and KKR declined to comment, Newsweek said. AT&T last week said it will stop advertising and marketing to attract local and long-distance customers, while still providing service to existing users.
■ Petroleum
IPO for PetroChina?
PetroChina, China's largest oil company, is planning
an ambitious US$3.6 billion to US$4.8 billion domestic listing to fund expansion plans overseas, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The amount is by up to four times the biggest initial public offering so far in China and comes as the country's ailing stock markets are sapped of liquidity, the newspaper said, quoting unnamed officials close to the company. However, its success will turn on the market's ability to absorb the listing depending on its pricing, especially in relation to the valuation of PetroChina's listed company in Hong Kong, the news-paper said. The application has not yet been approved and neither has the timing nor the size of the offering. "The application is in but nobody really knows when or if it will be approved by the regulators. There is really no timetable," the newspaper quoted one official as saying.
■ Banking
Abbey National accepts bid
Management of British mortgage bank Abbey National announced yes-terday that it had accepted a friendly takeover bid by the biggest Spanish bank, Santander Central Hispano, in a deal creating one of the biggest banks in Europe. "Further to its announce-ment on Friday ... Abbey National plc confirms that it has reached agreement with Banco Santander on the terms of a recommended cash and shares offer to be made for the whole of its ordinary share capital," the British bank said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. Abbey said a full announcement of the terms and conditions of the offer would be made later yesterday. British press reports have put the deal at ?8.5 billion (US$15.6 billion). A deal between the two institutions would create the fourth-biggest bank in Europe by market capi-talization, behind HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS, the largest in the eurozone and the eighth-biggest worldwide.
■ Telecom
Asian IC standard in sight
Telecommunications ministers from China, South Korea and Japan agreed yesterday to work toward an "Asian standard" on IC tags -- tiny computer chips with antennas which can be used to track products by radio. IC tags can store
data that can be used
for inventory, product distribution and tracking other movements of items. The three countries have been meeting regularly in recent years to try to agree on a single standard for Internet and other telecommunications technologies.
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
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique