FRANCE
Fillon shocked by pay
Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday that he and others in the government were considering the idea of imposing extra taxes on companies that overpay their top executives. Fillon told the regional daily Nice-Matin in an interview that he was shocked by the high salaries of some executives. “I do not believe in controls on salaries. On the other hand, I am shocked to see the wage increases of a few that are completely disconnected from the economic reality of companies and wage negotiations,” Fillon was quoted as saying. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative government is pushing a package of fiscal reforms through parliament that would scrap an unpopular tax shield for the rich, while also raising a wealth tax threshold to relieve middle-class households whose property has jumped in value.
PHARMACEUTICALS
J&J recalls products
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Friday it has recalled 16,000 bottles of its Risperdal schizophrenia treatment and another 24,000 bottles of a generic formulation of the medicine due to consumer reports of odors in the products. The company said the latest two recalls stem from odors believed caused by trace amounts of a chemical called TBA found in pallets used to transport and store materials. J&J last year recalled a number of over-the-counter drugs — including its Tylenol and Motrin painkillers and its Benadryl allergy treatment — because of the same musty or moldy odor linked to the chemical. “While not considered to be toxic, TBA can generate an offensive odor and a very small number of patients have reported temporary gastrointestinal symptoms when taking other products with this odor,” J&J said on Friday.
TECHNOLOGY
Damages claim revealed
Oracle is seeking between US$1.4 billion and US$6.1 billion in a patent lawsuit against Google over the lucrative smartphone market, according to a court filing. Oracle sued Google last year, claiming the Web search company’s Android mobile operating technology infringes upon Oracle’s Java patents. Oracle bought the Java programming language through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in January last year. A US judge last week ordered Google to make public parts of a court filing that contains details about Oracle’s damage claims. Google complied with that order on Friday and revealed the damages range sought by Oracle. Google disputes the Oracle damages amount in the court filing, calling it “a breathtaking figure that is out of proportion to any meaningful measure of the intellectual property at issue.”
PHARMACEUTICALS
GSK ordered to recall drug
GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK), the UK’s biggest drugmaker, was ordered to recall an antibiotic on sale in China following similar moves in Taiwan and Hong Kong after authorities detected an industrial plasticizer in the drug. China has halted sales of Augmentin manufactured by GSK after finding diisodecyl phthalate, known as DIDP, the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration said yesterday in a statement on its Web site. Taiwan and Hong Kong earlier this month also ordered a recall of Augmentin. Animal tests suggest long-term consumption of the chemical might affect the liver, according to a statement from Hong Kong’s Department of Health.
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
COLLABORATION: The operations center shows the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the field of semiconductors, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand. Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said. The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs. The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company
Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has retired from the company and stepped down from its board of directors just as the company is in the middle of trying to execute a turnaround plan. Intel chief financial officer David Zinsner and Intel Products CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus are serving as interim co-CEOs while the board searches for Gelsinger’s replacement, the company said in a statement. Frank Yeary, independent chair of the board of Intel, is to serve as interim executive chair, the company said. Gelsinger’s departure is hitting at a tumultuous time for the US chipmaker. Once the industry leader in
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