AUTOMOBILES
Ford CEO to stay insider
The next chief executive of Ford Motor Co will probably be a company insider, executive chairman Bill Ford Jr said on Friday. Ford said he is happy with chief executive Alan Mulally, who has given no hint of when he will retire. Speaking with reporters during a business conference, Ford laughed off a question about Mulally’s departure date. Company insiders say the leading contenders for the job are president of the Americas Mark Fields, president of the Asia Pacific and Africa regions Joe Hinrichs, product development chief Derrick Kuzak, global marketing chief Jim Farley and the chairman and chief executive of Ford Europe Stephen Odell.
AUTOMOBILES
No Chrysler IPO this year
Chrysler Group LLC, the US automaker controlled by Fiat SpA, needs more time to show strong financial results before holding an initial public offering (IPO), chief executive officer of both automakers Sergio Marchionne said on Friday. “We need an additional track record of performance and probably a better equity market than I’m seeing today.” Chrysler needs all of this year before an IPO he said. Marchionne is pushing Chrysler to raise its global sales by 32 percent to 2 million vehicles and turn an annual profit of US$200 million into US$500 million this year. Chrysler last month posted Q1 net profits of US$116 million, its first since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009.
FINANCE
Iceland funding approved
The IMF said on Friday it had approved a sixth tranche of US$225 million in financing for Iceland, citing Reykjavik’s “impressive progress” in post-crisis restructuring. The fund said Iceland’s economy would likely return to growth this year, but still faced risks from inflationary pressures, delays in investment projects, joblessness and slow private sector debt restructuring. It also approved the country’s strategy of easing capital controls. The IMF also warned about the need to continue strengthening financial institutions, saying the government needed to “resist absorbing private sector losses” to maintain a sustainable level of public debt.
CANADA
Ottawa to expand free trade
The government will seek to vastly expand its free-trade deals and improve the flow of people and goods to the US, while maintaining tough border security, the country’s governor-general said on Friday. In a throne speech ahead of the 41st session of parliament, Governor-General David Johnston said Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government aims to complete negotiations on trade agreements with the EU by next year and with India by 2013. Ottawa has signed free trade agreements with eight countries since 2006, and negotiations on another 50 are under way.
INTERNET
More hacking uncovered
Internet security firm Trend Micro warned on Friday that cyber attackers have attempted to infiltrate Web-based e-mail services run by Microsoft and Yahoo as well as Google. As US federal agents investigate a Gmail spying campaign uncovered by Google, Trend Micro said that Hotmail and Yahoo Mail had been similarly targeted. Google said on Wednesday that a cyber spying campaign originating in China had targeted the Gmail accounts of senior US officials, military personnel, journalists, Chinese political activists, and officials in several Asian countries. According to The Wall Street Journal, the US officials targeted included White House staff.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
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