■ 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.
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco), the Saudi state-owned oil giant, yesterday posted first-quarter profits of US$26 billion, down 4.6 percent from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar development plans. Aramco had revenues of US$108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw US$107.2 billion in revenues and profits of US$27.2 billion for the same period last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest US$600 billion in the US over the course of US President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump, who is set to touch
SKEPTICAL: An economist said it is possible US and Chinese officials would walk away from the meeting saying talks were productive, without reducing tariffs at all US President Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks yesterday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. In a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.” The second day of closed-door meetings between US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were due to restart yesterday morning, said a person familiar
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