■COMPUTERS
India names Satyam heads
Indian authorities have named three business leaders to the board of outsourcing giant Satyam Computers in the wake of a massive fraud scandal that threatens to sink the company. Satyam is fighting for its life after founder and chairman B. Ramalinga Raju confessed to doctoring the company’s accounts by US$1 billion. Raju and two other senior executives have been arrested and charged with criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust, among other counts. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs announced yesterday that the three new board members would be Deepak Parekh, head of the Housing Development Finance Corp bank; Kiran Karnik, the former head of Nasscom, a trade body of technology companies; and C. Achuthan, a legal expert and a former member of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
■FUEL
Chavez denies cancelation
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday that Venezuela’s program to provide heating oil to poor US families was never halted, despite concerns that deliveries might be interrupted. Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp had to make a public announcement that the aid would continue after its partner nonprofit group said Citgo stopped the free fuel shipments because of the world economic crisis. “They are speculating on all sides that Venezuela has suspended its program of cooperation with the poor of the US,” Chavez said. “No, it was never suspended.” Chavez did not address whether oil shipments were ever interrupted. Boston-based Citizens Energy Corp last Monday alerted households benefiting from the four-year-old program that oil shipments were in doubt.
■ELECTRONICS
Sanyo lowers forecasts
Japan’s struggling Sanyo Electric Co is set to downgrade its earnings forecasts for the year to March, expecting a strong yen to wipe out its net profit almost entirely, a report said yesterday. Sanyo, which is to become a subsidiary of Panasonic Corp later this year, will lower its forecast for group net profit from ¥35 billion (US$384 million) to almost zero for the full year to March, the Asahi Shimbun said. Its forecast of operating profit would be revised down by 40 percent to ¥30 billion from ¥50 billion, with sales expected to fall below ¥2 trillion for the first time in nine years, it said. The company’s earnings from microchip and other electronics parts are rapidly worsening due to the yen’s appreciation, the Asahi said, adding that the company would announce the revised forecasts this week.
■ELECTRONICS
iPhone books to hit shelves
Shortcovers expects to be turning iPhones into electronic books by month’s end. Shortcovers is releasing a mini-application that lets people read books, short stories or other written works on Apple-made smart phones in a direct challenge to electronic book devices sold by Amazon and Sony. Shortcovers software will be available for free download after it clears Apple’s vetting process and makes it to the virtual shelves of iTunes online App Store. “People aren’t reading less they are reading differently,” Shortcovers user experience director Pamela Hilborn said while demonstrating the application at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Their attention spans are shorter.” Shortcovers plans to make money on best-selling books and other works to iPhone readers for US$0.99 a chapter, with the first chapters free so people can look about for “their next great read,” Hilborn said.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
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