■ Finance
Nomura eyes Taishin stake
Nomura Securities Co may spend NT$4 billion (US$125 million) buying a stake in Taishin Financial Holdings Co (台新銀行) in a private placement, the Economic Daily News reported, without saying where it got the information. Nomura Securities' board of directors approved the investment earlier this week, the report newspaper said, without elaborating on the size of the stake. Nomura Securities is owned by Nomura Holdings Inc, Japan's biggest brokerage. Taishin Financial said on Jan. 27 that it would sell NT$27 billion in securities to Newbridge Asia IV, LP in a private placement. The Newbridge Capital LLC fund will buy NT$20 billion in stocks and NT$7 billion in convertible bonds from Taipei-based Taishin Financial, it said.
■ Consumer affairs
Alexander, California fined
Consumer protection officials inspected more fitness centers yesterday following an incident in an Alexander Health Club (亞力山大俱樂部) branch that led to one death and 11 injuries during the Lunar New Year holiday. After an inspection of Alexander's Sinjhuang and Sanchong branches, Taipei County officials fined the Sinjhuang outlet NT$60,000 because of blocked exits. The Sanchung center was required to improve its emergency exit directory and remove objects blocking passages. Both outlets passed tests for carbon monoxide, the officials said. Meanwhile, California Fitness, another fitness chain with five outlets in Taipei City, was also fined NT$120,000 by city government officials. California's branch on Zhongxiao East Road was fined for poor ventilation maintenance and problems with its fire detector control system, as well as blocked passages, one official said.
■ Mobile phones
Nokia market share jumps
Nokia Oyj, the world's biggest maker of mobile phones, enjoyed the largest growth in share of the global handset market last year after the company focused on sales in emerging economies, an industry group said. Nokia's share of the worldwide market rose to 32.6 percent last year from 29.1 percent in 2004, while Motorola Inc shipped 18 percent of the world's handsets compared with 14.7 percent in 2004, researcher ISuppli Corp said yesterday in a report. Rising sales of low-cost models in emerging markets helped Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, the researcher said. Global mobile phone shipments gained 14 percent to 813 million units last year, from 713 million units a year earlier, ISuppli said. Fourth quarter shipments rose to 242 million units from 200 million a year earlier, the researcher said.
■ Securities
Fubon must compensate
Fubon Asset Management Co (富邦投信), which was punished last week over irregularities involving bond funds, is obligated to pay compensation for any losses incurred by fund investors, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday. Investors who traded or redeemed their investments in the affected portfolios after last October can request that the firm cover their losses, commission spokesman Lin Chung-cheng (林忠正) told reporters yesterday. Lin declined to disclose the volume of the illegal transactions or the number of investors potentially affected. Fubon Asset Management, the nation's largest securities investment trust firm, was fined NT$3.6 million for trading its mutual funds between May 2004 and October last year.
■ Entertainment
Vivendi buys Universal
Japan's Matsushita has agreed to a US$1.15 billion deal to sell to Vivendi Universal of France its 7.66 percent stake in a holding company that owns Universal Music Group, the two companies said yesterday. The deal raises to 100 percent Vivendi's ownership of Universal Studios Holding I Corp, which as well as owning the world's biggest music company also holds game developer Universal Interactive and 20 percent of NBC Universal. NBC Universal in turn owns motion picture maker Universal Studios. The remaining 80 percent of the company is held by US General Electric, which bought the stake from Vivendi in 2004 as the French company floundered in debt. Universal Studios Holding I is also sitting on US$3.7 billion of net cash, Vivendi Universal said in a statement in Paris.
■ Oil
Shell posts record profit
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell yesterday announced a record profit of US$22.94 billion for last year, the biggest annual profit ever posted for a British-listed company. As soaring crude prices boosted oil companies, profits of Royal Dutch Shell increased by nearly a third on last year. The results follow a year in which the cost of crude jumped from below US$45 a barrel to break the US$70 mark. Most of Shell's profits come from finding and extracting oil, and then selling it on to the markets. Analysts said Shell's profits showed that the unification of company structures last year between its British and Dutch wings had been a success. In view of "difficulties" arising from the situation in countries like Iraq and Nigeria Shell had also invested in "innovative" methods of exploration, including in Canada and South America to find more outlets.
■ Electronics
Man sues Apple over iPod
A Louisiana man claims in a lawsuit that Apple's iPod music player can cause hearing loss in people who use it. Apple has sold more than 42 million of the devices since they went on sale in 2001, including 14 million in the fourth quarter last year. The devices can produce sounds of more than 115 decibels, a volume that can damage the hearing of a person exposed to the sound for more than 28 seconds per day, according to the complaint. The iPod players are "inherently defective in design and are not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of hearing loss," according to the complaint, filed on Tuesday in US District Court in San Jose, California, on behalf of John Kiel Patterson of Louisiana.
■ Internet security
Kama Sutra worm strikes
Internet security experts on Wednesday urged computer users to update their anti-virus software before a new worm nicknamed Kama Sutra unleashes its payload today. The computer worm, also known as Nyxem-D and MyWife.E, attaches itself to e-mails and tries to trick users into opening it by telling them it contains pornographic images. The worm is thought to have infected as many as 500,000 computers, mostly in India, Peru, Turkey and Italy according to Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for security company F-Secure Corp. The worm is programmed to activate on the third day of every month. It can freeze the mouse and keyboard on a recipient's computer and overwrite files on the hard drive to make them inaccessible.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS