■ Engineering
Siemens to eliminate jobs
Siemens AG, Germany's largest engineering company, has decided to slash more than 1,000 jobs at its Munich-based headquarters to help cut costs, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung weekly.
At least 500 jobs may be eliminated at Siemens' Com division, the newspaper reported in a preview of an article to be published in yesterday's edition, citing no one. Further cost cuts may also hit its mobile-phone business. Siemens' fixed-line phone business may also suffer several hundred job cuts while other reductions may hurt mobile-phone production at the Kamp-Lintfort and Bocholt factories, the paper said. Peter Gottal, a Siemens spokesman, wasn't immediately available for comment. Siemens is considering options for its unprofitable mobile-phone business and intends to announce a plan by the end of the month.
■ Software
Oracle wraps up purchase
Oracle Corp completed its US$10.3 billion purchase of PeopleSoft Inc, creating the world's second-biggest maker of business-management software. The transaction was completed on Saturday, Bob Wynne, a spokesman for Redwood, California-based Oracle, said yesterday. Investors had handed over 97 percent of PeopleSoft stock, more than the 90 percent needed to complete the acquisition. PeopleSoft capitulated
in December, accepting Oracle chief executive officer Lawrence Ellison's sweetened US$26.50 a share offer to end an 18-month battle that pitted PeopleSoft against its investors and led to
the ouster of its chief executive. The combination vaults Oracle from No. 3 in the US$22 billion market for programs that handle tasks such as payroll and human resources.
■ Retail
FamilyMart looks overseas
FamilyMart Co intends to more than double the number of its stores overseas in four years as growth in the Japanese convenience store market slows, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. The company plans to open stores in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China and the US, aiming to bring the total number overseas to 11,770 by March 2009, the newspaper said today. Tokyo-based FamilyMart aims to generate more than 20 percent of its pretax profit from overseas by March 2009, compared with an estimated 4 percent for the year ending March, the paper said. It plans to increase its proportion of convenience stores abroad to 60 percent from 40 percent, the paper said. FamilyMart, Japan's third-largest convenience store, last week raised its sales forecast for the year ending Feb. 28 by 1.4 percent to ?254.2 billion (US$2.43 billion).
■ Automobiles
Mitsubishi inks new deals
Troubled Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors has inked deals to supply its autos to Japan's Nissan Motor and French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen from next year, a news report said yesterday. Mitsubishi will sell mini-vehicles to Nissan and sports utility vehicles to Peugeot on an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) basis, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. Mitsubishi, the fourth-largest Japanese automaker and hit by defect cover-ups and sagging sales, will include the OEM
deals as part of its new revitalization plan to be released later this month, the newspaper said. Peugeot has said it had no alliance plans and no active cooperation project with Mitsubishi.
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
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘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)