■ Telecoms
Motorola's profits slump
Motorola Inc reported a 45 percent decline in third-quarter profit on Tuesday on revenue that came in well below analysts' expectations. The earnings met Wall Street's estimates, but sales of the company's hot-selling Razr phones left total revenue still nearly half a billion dollars lower than forecast. Earnings for the July-through-September period were US$968 million, or US$0.39 a share, down from US$1.75 billion, or US$0.69 a share, a year earlier. Revenue was US$10.6 billion, up 17 percent from US$9.05 billion a year ago but well under the consensus estimate of US$11.07 billion.
■ Takeovers
Carlyle cuts investment
US investment firm Carlyle Group has cut the size of the stake it is trying to buy in a Chinese construction equipment maker to 50 percent, the Chinese company said yesterday, after a takeover bid last year offer prompted a nationalist outcry. Carlyle signed an offer on Monday to buy the stake in Xugong Group Construction Machinery Co (徐工築路機械), Xugong said in a statement. It didn't give a price and said the deal requires Chinese government approval. Carlyle's offer last year to buy 85 percent of Xugong for US$375 million prompted complaints about asset sales to foreigners and received high-level official attention.
■ Corruption
Lay's conviction dismissed
A judge on Tuesday dismissed the conviction of Enron founder Kenneth Lay, who became a symbol of corporate malfeasance in the US, because he died before he had a chance to appeal. The decision by a US federal judge in Houston, Texas, means Lay's estate will not have to forfeit tens of millions of dollars that the court had determined were fraudulently obtained. Thousands of people who lost their jobs and life savings when the Houston-based energy giant collapsed in 2001, however, will still be able to sue Lay's estate in civil court. Lay was convicted of six counts of fraud on May 25 and died of a massive heart attack on July 5.
■ Computers
IBM's earnings rocket
Third-quarter earnings jumped nearly 50 percent to US$2.22 billion at IBM Corp, thanks largely to a lower tax bill, with sales of software and hardware helping drive a 5 percent increase in the computer company's revenue. Net income for the three months ended on Sept. 30 amounted to US$1.45 per share. In the same period last year, IBM earned US$1.52 billion, or US$0.94 a share, as the company absorbed a US$525 million tax expense on foreign earnings that were repatriated to the US. Third-quarter revenue totaled US$22.62 billion, up from US$21.53 billion a year earlier.
■ Technology
Spain tackles child porn
Spain's leftist government signed a cooperation agreement with Microsoft Corp on Tuesday to fight child pornography on the Internet. Under the deal, Microsoft will make available to Spanish police and civil guards a special tracking system aimed to improve ways of fighting crimes linked to child pornography, Spain's interior ministry and Microsoft said in a joint statement. In particular, the system allows the sharing of different national police and judicial data compiled using a standard computer language, and facilitates the storing, research and analysis of facts on current and past investigations.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from