SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook tests payments
Facebook says it plans to test a mobile payments service that lets users make purchases inside mobile applications using payment information they have added to their account on the social network. Facebook is working on a “very small test” and the company says there is no set schedule for making the service available to users. The service would use payment information that shoppers store on Facebook to automatically complete checkout forms of certain mobile apps. Then, the app would process the purchase. Facebook says the company has a “great relationship with PayPal” and the service will not involve moving payment processing “away from an app’s current payments provider, such as PayPal.”
AUTOMAKERS
GM shuts down in Egypt
General Motors Co (GM) has closed its operations in Egypt indefinitely because of violence in the country. The company said on Thursday it closed its plant in the Cairo suburb of 6th October City, where it makes cars, light trucks and minibuses. It also closed its offices in Cairo. GM has around 1,400 workers in Egypt. In 1983, it became the first private automaker to establish operations in the country. GM said in a statement that its chief concern is for the safety and security of its employees.
AVIATION
Korean Air pays US$65m
South Korea’s largest carrier, Korean Air (KAL), said yesterday it had agreed to pay US$65 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by US passengers over alleged price fixing. Korean Air said it would pay US$39 million in cash and US$26 million in coupons to passengers who have accused the airline of conspiring with local rival Asiana Airlines to establish artificially high prices for travel between South Korea and the US group of passengers launched a lawsuit after the US Department of Justice slapped Korean Air with a US$300 million fine and Asiana with US$50 million over anti-trust violations in 2000.
SHIPPING
Moller-Maersk profit dented
Denmark’s shipping and oil group A.P. Moller-Maersk says a drop in freight rates and lower oil production dented its second-quarter profit. Net profit in the period fell 13 percent to 4.9 billion kroner (US$856 million) compared with a year earlier, while revenue dropped 9 percent to 81 billion kroner. The world’s largest container shipping company cautioned that this year is “subject to considerable uncertainty, not least due to developments in the global economy.” It expects full-year net profit to be around US$3.3 billion, below last year’s result of US$4 billion. Maersk shares fell 1.4 percent in early trading yesterday in Copenhagen to 44,760 kroner.
RETAIL
Spain’s richest woman dies
The Spanish company that owns the Zara chain of clothing stores says co-founder Rosalia Mera has died. She was 69 and Spain’s richest woman. Inditex SA did not give details in its statement yesterday about how she died. However, Spanish media widely reported that Mera suffered a stroke while on vacation on the Mediterranean island of Menorca and died on Thursday night in a hospital that she was transported to in northwestern Spain. Mera was a seamstress who helped build Inditex from the clothing store she started with her then-husband, Armancio Ortega. Mera held 5.1 percent of Inditex, and her fortune was estimated by Forbes at US$6.1 billion. The magazine says she was the world’s 195th-richest person.
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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