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World Business Quick Take

■ SEMICONDUCTORS
Samsung makes advance
South Korea's Samsung Electronics said yesterday that it has developed the world's most powerful memory chip, which could help create a memory card capable of storing 80 DVD movies. The company said in a statement it has developed the world's first 64-gigabit NAND flash memory product, which it called "a major leap forward" in flash storage. Up to 16 of the chips could be combined to make a 128-gigabyte memory card that would be able to store 80 DVD movies or 32,000 MP3 music files, it said, adding that production would begin in 2009. Samsung said the new product would create a new US$20 billion market until 2011.

■ COMPUTERS
Hitachi pulls plug on PCs
Hitachi Ltd is pulling out of the household computer business, in the latest shift among Japanese electronics makers to refocus their sprawling operations. Hitachi has stopped making PCs for individual consumers since this year's summer models, although the Tokyo-based manufacturer will keep making some kinds of computers for corporate clients, company spokesman Keisaku Shibatani said yesterday. Hitachi -- whose businesses span nuclear power reactors, flat-panel TVs, washing machines and electronic devices such as hard disk drives -- has been losing money, and is struggling to turn itself around. Hitachi's home PCS were sold only in Japan. PCS account for less than 1 percent of annual sales.

■ FASHION
Esprit looking to buy
The Chinese-German clothing group Esprit is ready to spend US$1 billion for a US or European rival, and is in talks with several, its boss said in an interview yesterday. "Start on the basis that we would like to acquire an expensive American subsidiary," Heinz Juergen Krogner told the weekly Focus Money. But "Donna Karan is not for sale, Ralph Lauren is not a good fit for us," he said, adding "we are therefore concentrating on European fashion groups." Esprit was "in intense discussions with three or four companies," Korgner said in the interview to be published tomorrow but released in advance. "We could even pay a billion dollars," he said.

■ INTERNET
US holiday sales to rise
JupiterResearch predicted on Monday that a record number of US shoppers will make purchases via the Internet this year-end holiday season, spending more than US$39 billion online. "This market remains insulated from macroeconomic factors cited to adversely affect overall holiday retail sales," the technology-tracking firm concluded in a report titled US Online Retail Holiday Forecast. JupiterResearch expects an estimated 126 million people in the US will buy items on the Internet by the end of December -- a 6 percent increase from the holiday shopping season last year.

■ AUTOMOBILES
New plant for Toyota firm
A Toyota Motor Corp group subsidiary said yesterday that it would build a new plant in northern Japan, the latest move by the automaker to beef up global production. Central Motor Co said the plant in Miyagi Prefecture would be completed by 2010, with an annual capacity of 120,000 vehicles. Toyota hailed the announcement and said it hoped the new plant would make production more efficient and contribute to the continuous production of quality Toyota cars.


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