TELECOMS
Motorola loses patent suit
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc, which has won two rulings against Apple Inc in Germany, failed to win a third in a patent case involving the use of mathematical sequences in mobile telecommunications. The Regional Court in Mannheim rejected the suit yesterday. Motorola Mobility did not show that Apple violated its patent, Presiding Judge Andreas Voss said when delivering the ruling. More cases between the two companies are pending in German courts, including a bid by Motorola Mobility to enforce its first win from December, which briefly forced Apple to remove some older iPhone and iPad models from its online store in Germany last week. Google Inc is buying Illinois-based Motorola Mobility to gain mobile patents and expand its hardware business.
OIL
IEA trims growth forecast
The International Energy Agency (IEA) trimmed its forecast for oil demand growth as a result of gloomy economic prospects, but said yesterday that markets were taking tougher international sanctions on Iran in their stride. The agency cut its forecast for growth in oil demand this year to 0.8 million barrels per day (mbd), from 1.1mbd, after the IMF slashed its estimate for global economic growth from 4 percent to 3.3 percent this year. The agency was largely sanguine about the impact of tighter international sanctions on Iran, including an EU import ban which takes effect in July. The new forecast for global oil demand of 89.9mbd, is slightly higher that that of the OPEC oil producers cartel, which trimmed its demand forecast for this year on Thursday to 88.76mbd.
AUSTRALIA
Central bank cuts forecasts
The central bank yesterday trimmed its growth and inflation forecasts for the year to June and signaled it has leeway to cut interest rates amid uncertainty over the eurozone debt crisis. In its quarterly statement on monetary policy, the bank said economic growth in the year to June was expected to be 3.5 percent, down from the 4 percent it forecast in November last year. The bank left its outlook for GDP for this year unchanged at between 3 percent and 3.5 percent. Underlying inflation was forecast to be at 2.25 percent in the 12 months to June compared with its previous estimate of 2.5 percent, within the bank’s 2 percent to 3 percent target band. The bank said uncertainty about Europe’s debt crisis had weighed on household and business confidence and while strong growth was expected in the mining sector, other parts of the economy would continue to struggle.
INVESTMENT
Fund bets on US Treasuries
Pacific Investment Management Co’s Bill Gross increased his holdings of US Treasuries to the highest level since July 2010, while Berkshire Hathaway Inc chairman Warren Buffett called them “dangerous.” Gross boosted US government and Treasury debt to 38 percent of assets in Pimco’s US$250.5 billion Total Return Fund, the world’s biggest bond fund. The position last month climbed from 30 percent in December, according to a report on the company’s Web site on Thursday. The billionaire investor, said taxes and inflation should dissuade investors from debt. That puts him in the same camp as Laurence Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc, the world’s largest money manager, who said this week investors should have 100 percent of their holdings in equities because they offer higher returns than bonds.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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