■INTERNET
Google founders sell shares
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each plan to sell 5 million shares in the Internet giant, a move that would reduce their joint holdings to below 50 percent, a filing TO the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Friday. The SEC filing said the stock sales, which will occur over the next five years, are part of a pre-determined stock trading plan set up by Page and Brin on Nov. 30.
■BREWERIES
Beer blockade lifted
A blockade that threatened to strangle supplies of top Belgian beers to home and neighboring European markets ended on Friday, after management and unions said a compromise was reached. Two weeks after workers first barricaded Stella Artois, Jupiler and Hoegaarden breweries, in protest at owners Anheuser-Busch InBev’s plans to cut 10 percent of its European workforce, drinkers can breathe easier. AB InBev produces around 60 percent of the beer consumed in Belgium’s bars and cafes.
■COMPUTERS
Wife punishes Oracle chief
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and Oracle Corp president Charles Phillips has learned that lesson in a very public way. Huge billboards depicting the married software executive with YaVaughnie Wilkins, his former mistress, appeared this week in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco, setting tabloid tongues wagging. The billboards with the words “You are my soulmate forever!” appeared to be an attempt by Wilkins to embarrass Phillips after their relationship ended and he returned to his wife. The billboards also featured the address of a Web site that contains photos of Wilkins and Phillips, karaoke tracks and articles written by Wilkins.
■BANKING
Barclays’ bonuses deferred
Top staff at Barclays will defer payment of up to 100 percent of their bonuses for up to three years as they seek to respond to public anger about banking pay, the Financial Times reported Saturday. The business daily said this would apply to members of the British bank’s 11-member executive committee, led by chief executive John Varley, while the next 2,000 or so staff could defer upwards of 75 percent for three years.
■INDUSTRY
GE income down 19 percent
General Electric Co’s fourth-quarter net income fell 19 percent, but the industrial bellwether is seeing signs of stability as it moves into a key rebuilding year. For the quarter, GE posted net income of US$2.94 billion, or US$0.28 per share. That compared with US$3.65 billion, or US$0.35, a year earlier. GE said that orders improved late in the year in its businesses that supply equipment like turbines for power plants and sonogram machines for hospitals.
■FAST FOOD
McDonald’s profit rises
McDonald’s dollar menu keeps gaining fans in the recession, and its profit rose last fall, but the world’s largest burger chain said on Friday that its annual revenue slipped for the first time in at least a quarter century. For the three months that ended on Dec. 31, McDonald’s rang up revenue of US$5.97 billion — 7 percent more than the same period last year. Falling commodity costs and currency fluctuations helped boost the company’s fourth quarter profit, which amounted to US$1.22 billion, or US$1.11 per share. For the full year, McDonald’s profit climbed 6 percent to US$4.55 billion, or US$4.11 per share.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
Nvidia Corp’s negotiations to invest as much as US$100 billion in OpenAI have broken down, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, exposing a potential rift between two of the most powerful companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry. The discussions stalled after some inside Nvidia expressed concerns about the transaction, the WSJ reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deliberations. OpenAI makes the popular chatbot ChatGPT, while Nvidia dominates the market for AI processors that help develop such software. The companies announced the agreement in September last year, saying at the time that they had signed a letter of intent for a strategic
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