WTO
US wins PRC poultry appeal
The WTO has ruled in favor of the US in a long-standing trade dispute concerning allegations that China unfairly imposed anti-dumping tariffs that restricted US poultry exports. The US appeal to the WTO dates back to 2011 after China said that the US had engaged in dumping and had imposed tariffs on imports of so-called ``broiler products,’’ which include most chicken products, with the exception of live chickens. China said US chicken producers benefited from subsidies and were exporting their goods at unreasonably low prices. Countries are allowed to impose punitive tariffs to offset both practices, but US officials claimed China did not follow proper procedures when it imposed them in September 2010. The US also said tens of thousands of jobs were affected. China was one of the two top markets for US chicken exports before the tariffs.
INTERNET
Yahoo buys browser maker
Yahoo has acquired Rockmelt, a US startup company that built a Web browser tied to Facebook’s social network. It is the 20th acquisition that Yahoo has completed since Marissa Mayer became the company’s CEO nearly 13 months ago. Rockmelt has raised about US$40 million from venture capitalists and other investors since its inception. That makes it likely Yahoo had to be above that amount to buy the company. Rockmelt unveiled its Facebook-focused Web browser in late 2010, however, it never gained traction. The startup later introduced a version designed for smartphones and tablets.
LABOR
US employers slow hirings
US employers slowed their pace of hiring last month, but the jobless rate fell anyway, a pair of mixed signals that could make the US Federal Reserve more cautious about drawing down its huge economic stimulus program. The number of jobs outside the farming sector increased by 162,000 last month, the smallest gain in four months, and below analysts’ expectations, Labor Department data showed on Friday. The lackluster reading reinforced the view that the job market is only inching toward recovery from the 2007 to 2009 recession and weighed on financial markets. At the same time, gains in employment were enough to push the unemployment rate down to 7.4 percent, its lowest level since December 2008.
COMPUTERS
Dell rallies in buying battle
Just when it looked as if he might be ready to give it all up, Dell CEO Michael Dell has regained the advantage in the lengthy battle to buy the slumping personal computer company that he founded nearly three decades ago. He did it by persuading the company’s board to accept a slightly better offer that adds a one-time dividend in exchange for a pivotal change in how shareholders will vote on the deal. The latest twist in the saga that has lasted half a year emerged on Friday, shortly before Dell was scheduled to hold a shareholder vote on the company’s proposed sale to Michael Dell and investment firm Silver Lake Partners for US$24.4 billion, or US$13.65 per share. Michael Dell wants to further diversify a company that has had trouble adapting to the growing use of smartphones and tablet computers over the desktops and laptops that Dell makes.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
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