JAPAN
Toyota still on top
Toyota remains Japan’s No. 1 global brand, but its value has fallen by nearly a fifth because of the recent massive recalls that dented consumer trust in the quality of its cars, according to an international consultant. An Interbrand report released yesterday said that the value of the Toyota Motor Corp brand dropped 16 percent to US$25.66 billion compared with its last report released a year ago. Toyota’s Lexus luxury model nameplate, which placed seventh last year, dropped to eighth, losing 19 percent of its value, Interbrand said. Interbrand said Honda Motor Co placed second, followed by electronics makers Canon Inc and Sony Corp, and then video-game maker Nintendo Co.
ELECTRONICS
Infineon raises targets
German semiconductor company Infineon yesterday raised its sales and profit margin targets for this year after posting a more than three-fold increase in net profit for the first quarter of its fiscal year. The company said it now expected sales to gain around 15 percent, compared with a previous forecast of 10 percent. The group’s 2010-2011 profit margin is estimated at close to 20 percent, up from the previous range of 15 percent to 20 percent. In the first three months of the year that began on Oct. 1, Infineon rang up 922 million euros (US$1.3 billion) in sales, a leap of 34 percent from the same period a year earlier. The group’s profit margin came to 19.2 percent.
TECHNOLOGY
Oracle settles lawsuit
Oracle Corp has agreed to pay US$46 million to settle a lawsuit over alleged kickbacks to win government work. The US Department of Justice charged that Sun Microsystems Inc, which Oracle bought last year, and other technology companies paid kickbacks to Accenture PLC for Accenture to recommend that federal agencies buy Sun products. The justice department said last year that the lawsuit covered software contracts that ran from 1998 to 2006 and were worth hundreds of millions of US dollars.
BANKING
Deutsche Bank expects drop
Germany’s leading Deutsche Bank expects net profit of about 600 million euros (US$822.99 million) in the fourth quarter, a nearly 54 percent drop from a year ago due to recent acquisitions and restructuring costs. The year before, Deutsche Bank had achieved net profit of 1.3 billion euros and Dow Jones Newswires analysts had agreed on an estimate of about 800 million euros for this year. Pre-tax profit for the fourth quarter was expected to be around 700 million euros, compared with 756 million a year earlier, the bank said late on Monday. Deutsche Bank publishes its annual results on Thursday.
BANKING
BOA cuts down on bonuses
Bank of America Corp (BOA) senior executives will not get cash bonuses for last year and chief executive Brian Moynihan will not receive a base salary increase this year, according to a securities filing on Monday. This year, Moynihan will have a base pay half as large as some of his chief rivals, with much of his compensation tied up in long-term awards. The head of the largest US bank by assets was paid US$950,000 in last year’s base salary. BOA’s board did increase the base pay for other senior executives. The salaries for chief financial officer Charles Noski, investment banking chief Thomas Montag and consumer bank head Joe Price will rise to US$850,000 this year from US$800,000.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
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