■ FINANCE
Mizuho linked with Merrill
Mizuho Corporate Bank is in final negotiations to invest ?140 billion (US$1.3 billion) in Merrill Lynch & Co, a news report said yesterday. The Japanese bank is likely to purchase shares representing a stake of several percent by the end of the month at the request of the US firm, according to a report in the Nikkei business daily. Mizuho spokesman Hiroaki Kanno said he was aware of the Nikkei report but that he "absolutely could not comment." He wouldn't say whether Mizuho and Merrill were in negotiations.
■ INTERNET
Facebook won't go public
The hot Internet social networking company Facebook probably won't try to go public this year, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview. "I think what I can announce is that it's highly unlikely that we will go public in 2008," Zuckerberg told CBS news program 60 Minutes in an interview aired on Sunday. Zuckerberg said the company could make an initial public offering later. "When going public makes sense to do, we'll do that. Maybe that's two years out. Maybe it's three years out," he said. Microsoft Corp paid US$240 million in October for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook, valuing the startup at US$15 billion.
■ AVIATION
Airline planning IPO
The Vietnamese government said yesterday that it has allowed Vietnam Airlines to hire an international consultant to advise on its initial public offering (IPO), which could see the national carrier sell up to 20 percent of its shares to foreign investors. The IPO will boost the airline's capital base while allowing the state to retain control with a stake of 70 percent to 80 percent, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said in a statement on the government's Web site. The airline will sell between a 10 percent and 20 percent stake to strategic investors, he said, giving no specific date for the share sale. Vietnam Airlines' shares will be listed on the country's stock market later this year, the official said.
■ TECHNOLOGY
Panasonic battery best
Japan's Panasonic has created the world's longest-lasting alkaline battery, according to Guinness World Records. Panasonic promises its new Evolta battery cell -- whose name is derived from "evolution" and "voltage" -- will keep gadgets running 20 percent longer than offerings from rivals Duracell and Energizer, as well as its own upscale Oxyride batteries. Guinness certified Evolta in a Tokyo ceremony yesterday as "the longest lasting AA alkaline battery cell," based on testing under guidelines set by the industry's International Electrotechnical Commission.
■ FINANCE
Jianyin may buy out partner
Morgan Stanley's Chinese partner is considering buying the US banking giant's entire stake in their local joint venture, state media reported yesterday. Jianyin Investment Ltd, indirectly owned by sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp, may acquire the 34.3 percent stake in China International Capital Corp (CICC) from Morgan Stanley, the 21st Century Business Herald said. Jianyin Investment is already the largest shareholder of the joint venture, holding a 43.35-percent stake.
NO RECIPROCITY: Taipei has called for cross-strait group travel to resume fully, but Beijing is only allowing people from its Fujian Province to travel to Matsu, the MAC said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday criticized an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism that it would lift a travel ban to Taiwan only for residents of China’s Fujian Province, saying that the policy does not meet the principles of reciprocity and openness. Chinese Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Rao Quan (饒權) yesterday morning told a delegation of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers in a meeting in Beijing that the ministry would first allow Fujian residents to visit Lienchiang County (Matsu), adding that they would be able to travel to Taiwan proper directly once express ferry
FAST RELEASE: The council lauded the developer for completing model testing in only four days and releasing a commercial version for use by academia and industry The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) yesterday released the latest artificial intelligence (AI) language model in traditional Chinese embedded with Taiwanese cultural values. The council launched the Trustworthy AI Dialogue Engine (TAIDE) program in April last year to develop and train traditional Chinese-language models based on LLaMA, the open-source AI language model released by Meta. The program aims to tackle the information bias that is often present in international large-scale language models and take Taiwanese culture and values into consideration, it said. Llama 3-TAIDE-LX-8B-Chat-Alpha1, released yesterday, is the latest large language model in traditional Chinese. It was trained based on Meta’s Llama-3-8B
STUMPED: KMT and TPP lawmakers approved a resolution to suspend the rate hike, which the government said was unavoidable in view of rising global energy costs The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it has a mandate to raise electricity prices as planned after the legislature passed a non-binding resolution along partisan lines to freeze rates. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers proposed the resolution to suspend the price hike, which passed by a 59-50 vote. The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) voted with the KMT. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT said the resolution is a mandate for the “immediate suspension of electricity price hikes” and for the Executive Yuan to review its energy policy and propose supplementary measures. A government-organized electricity price evaluation board in March
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has