■HONG KONG
Disneyland to expand
Lawmakers in the special administrative region have approved a government plan to expand the city’s Disneyland at a cost of about US$465 million. The approval late on Friday came after the Walt Disney Co and the Hong Kong government agreed to expand their joint venture, Hong Kong Disneyland, two weeks ago after two years of negotiation. The proposed expansion will add three more theme areas and 30 more new attractions, enlarging the park by nearly a quarter over the next five years.
■CHINA
Firm gets go-ahead for IPO
A construction company has received approval for the biggest initial public stock offering this year and hopes to raise 42.6 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion), a state newspaper reported yesterday. China State Construction Engineering Corp (中國建築工程), the country’s biggest builder of housing, plans to issue 12 billion shares, the China Securities Journal reported. The company’s showcase projects include the “Water Cube” swimming center for the Beijing Olympics, the futuristic state TV headquarters and the Shanghai World Financial Center.
■INTERNET
Rosetta Stone sues Google
Rosetta Stone, a language-learning software producer, on Friday filed a federal lawsuit against Google for infringing its trademark through Google’s AdWords online advertising program. Rosetta Stone charges that Google is wrongly allowing its name and other trademarks to serve as keywords that other businesses can use to target paid advertisements to people on the Internet. Google said on Friday that its policy is to allow trademarks to be used to target AdWords advertising.
■AUTOMOBILES
Porsche board calls meeting
The German luxury sports car maker Porsche has scheduled an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board on July 23 to discuss offers by Qatar and Volkswagen, sources said on Friday. A Porsche spokesman confirmed the meeting, while a source close to the supervisory board said the Qatar and VW offers would be discussed. Invitations were extended by Wolfgang Porsche, head of the supervisory board, the spokesman said.
■AVIATION
Continental to join alliance
The US government on Friday approved Continental Airlines’ bid to join the Star Alliance and granted partial antitrust immunity to a new joint venture within the group. The Transportation Department announced final approval of the requests made by Star members and Continental, confirming an April 7 finding that the proposed agreements would not hurt competition. Continental, the fourth-largest US airline and currently a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, will join Star, a grouping of more than 20 US and international airlines.
■PUBLISHING
Gannett announces cuts
The latest wrenching cutbacks at Gannett Co fell last week, as hundreds of employees at the largest US newspaper publisher received notices of layoffs. The company informed its newspapers last week that roughly 1,400 positions would be cut at Gannett’s US community publishing division, a unit that does not include its flagship USA Today newspaper. It was the latest major cutback for Gannett amid drastic revenue declines across the newspaper industry.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
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