■ Confectionery
`Peko-chan' faces ax
Japanese cake maker Fujiya is considering dropping its venerable mascot doll "Peko-chan" in a bid to change its image after a scandal in which it confessed to selling pastries made from stale ingredients. Life-sized Peko-chans, round-eyed mannequins with a lip-licking grin, have stood outside Fujiya cake stores since the firm adopted the eternal six-year-old after World War II. The company has assembled a team to consider a new mascot as one way of showing that it has reformed, the daily Yomiuri Shimbun said yesterday. The team would take about a year to mull the issue, it said.
■ Games consoles
Wii outsells rivals in US
US sales of Wii video game consoles last month nearly matched those of rivals Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined, figures released on Friday by NPD Group showed. While Nintendo's Wii was proving to be a powerful contender, it had a lot of ground to cover to catch up with the 5.1 million Xbox 360 consoles Microsoft had sold as of last month, NPD reported. Xbox was released a year before Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 made their US debuts in November last year. Neither Wii nor PlayStation 3 sales have breached 2 million units in the US, NPD said.
■ Investment
Blackstone mulls listing
The Blackstone Group, the US investment fund which specializes in taking publicly listed companies private, is mulling a partial stock market flotation, media reports said on Friday. The Wall Street Journal's online edition reported that Blackstone could be close to seeking a stock market listing for about 10 percent of the New York-based firm. Such a move would be somewhat ironic for a firm that has made a name for itself by taking large companies private.
■ Electronics
LG, Philips to lose tube firm
LG Electronics Inc and Royal Philips Electronics NV will lose control of their TV glass-tube company as early as this month, a spokeswoman for their venture said. The two companies will no longer own a combined controlling stake in the venture by the end of this month or beginning of next month, said Arleen Chipongian-Perez, a spokeswoman for Hong Kong-based LG.Philips Displays, the world's second-largest maker of cathode-ray tubes. Financial institutions and private equity firms will own shares of LG.Philips Displays, which will change its name to LP Displays starting next month, she said on Friday.
■ Wireless
Duo agree to drop claims
Qualcomm Inc and Broadcom Corp agreed to dismiss patent and trade-secret claims against each other, ending several skirmishes in the long-running legal battle between the two wireless technology companies. Qualcomm said the settlement on Friday eliminates five jury trials scheduled to start this year. The first was to begin on Monday in federal court in San Diego. The dismissed claims included allegations that Qualcomm violated six patents and Broadcom infringed on four patents, Qualcomm said.
Merida Industry Co (美利達) has seen signs of recovery in the US and European markets this year, as customers are gradually depleting their inventories, the bicycle maker told shareholders yesterday. Given robust growth in new orders at its Taiwanese factory, coupled with its subsidiaries’ improving performance, Merida said it remains confident about the bicycle market’s prospects and expects steady growth in its core business this year. CAUTION ON CHINA However, the company must handle the Chinese market with great caution, as sales of road bikes there have declined significantly, affecting its revenue and profitability, Merida said in a statement, adding that it would
Greek tourism student Katerina quit within a month of starting work at a five-star hotel in Halkidiki, one of the country’s top destinations, because she said conditions were so dire. Beyond the bad pay, the 22-year-old said that her working and living conditions were “miserable and unacceptable.” Millions holiday in Greece every year, but its vital tourism industry is finding it harder and harder to recruit Greeks to look after them. “I was asked to work in any department of the hotel where there was a need, from service to cleaning,” said Katerina, a tourism and marketing student, who would
i Gasoline and diesel prices at fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.1 per liter, as tensions in the Middle East pushed crude oil prices higher last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week rose for the third consecutive week due to an escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, as the market is concerned that the situation in the Middle East might affect crude oil supply, CPC and Formosa said in separate statements. Front-month Brent crude oil futures — the international oil benchmark — rose 3.75 percent to settle at US$77.01
RISING: Strong exports, and life insurance companies’ efforts to manage currency risks indicates the NT dollar would eventually pass the 29 level, an expert said The New Taiwan dollar yesterday rallied to its strongest in three years amid inflows to the nation’s stock market and broad-based weakness in the US dollar. Exporter sales of the US currency and a repatriation of funds from local asset managers also played a role, said two traders, who asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly. State-owned banks were seen buying the greenback yesterday, but only at a moderate scale, the traders said. The local currency gained 0.77 percent, outperforming almost all of its Asian peers, to close at NT$29.165 per US dollar in Taipei trading yesterday. The
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