TELECOMS
Nokia plans more cutbacks
The world’s largest mobile phone maker Nokia said yesterday it planned to cut 3,500 jobs in Romania, Germany and the US by the end of next year, according to a statement from the company. These cuts are in addition to the 4,000 job cuts and 3,000 outsourced jobs Nokia announced in April as part of a massive restructuring effort. The firm also hinted at more job cuts next year, saying that it would review the long-term role of its factories in Salo, Finland, Komarom, Hungary, and Reynosa, Mexico, adding that it expected to have more details “into the possible headcount impacts” at these sites next year.
COMPUTERS
AMD cuts Q3 forecasts
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-largest maker of processors for personal computers, reduced its forecasts for third-quarter sales and profitability, citing manufacturing glitches. Sales in the period ending tomorrow will increase 4 percent to 6 percent from the previous period, the California-based company said in a statement yesterday. That compares with an earlier prediction for growth of about 10 percent. Globalfoundries Inc, a spinoff of AMD’s manufacturing operations that now supplies the company with chips, is facing production problems at its plant in Dresden, Germany. That has resulted in a shortfall in the company’s s newest processors, the company said.
COMPUTERS
HP beefs up defenses
A published report says Hewlett-Packard (HP) is beefing up its defenses in a bid to fend off activist investors who, with enough shares, could demand drastic changes at the company. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that HP has hired Goldman Sachs to help formulate a strategy to guard against shareholder activism. With the company’s market value down about US$60 billion since former chief executive Mark Hurd resigned under last year, the company is under intense pressure to engineer a turnaround. Last week, HP fired Hurd’s replacement, Leo Apotheker and replaced him with former eBay Inc chief executive Meg Whitman.
INTERNET
Flickr launches new service
Yahoo is touching up its Flickr photograph-sharing service with a new way for friends located in different locations to simultaneously browse through pictures. The “Photo Session” feature introduced on Wednesday is designed to replicate the experience of leafing through an old-fashioned photograph album, even if the people sharing the experience are located thousands of kilometers apart. Any of Flickr’s nearly 170 million users can activate a session by obtaining a special link that can be sent to other invitees. A photography session can be done on iPhones, iPads and personal computers using the Safari, Firefox and Chrome browsers.
FINANCE
Fidelity defends manager
US investment fund giant Fidelity Management yesterday defended a Hong Kong portfolio manager charged with insider trading, saying he “did not violate any laws or regulations.” The comments came after documents revealed on Wednesday that the city’s financial secretary has accused George Stairs of improperly trading shares in Chinese food giant Chaoda Modern Agriculture (超大現代農業). The Chinese company’s chairman Kwok Ho (郭浩) and chief financial officer Andy Chan (陳志寶) were also charged in the case for allegedly supplying Stairs with inside information before a share offering in June 2009.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
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