AVIATION
Judge refuses to block merger
A judge refused to block a merger between American Airlines and US Airways on Friday, saying a bankruptcy judge correctly rejected arguments made by a lawyer for some consumers. San Francisco attorney Joseph Alioto argued that the deal would harm fliers because it would result in less competition and higher prices. However, US District Judge Loretta Preska repeatedly said that his arguments relied on outdated facts, had no evidence to support them and sometimes made no sense. American has said it plans to complete the merger with Tempe, Arizona-based US Airways on Monday. Preska said a federal bankruptcy judge was “correct in all respects” in deciding last week to let the merger proceed.
TRADING
Ex-Goldman trader gets jail
Former Goldman Sachs Group Inc trader Matthew Taylor was sentenced on Friday to serve nine months in prison and pay US$118 million in restitution to his former employer after he pleaded guilty to pursuing an unauthorized US$8.3 billion futures trade in 2007. In imposing a sentence well below the 33-to-41-month term that the US Department of Justice had recommended, US District Judge William Pauley in New York castigated both Goldman and government authorities for failing to immediately address Taylor’s conduct when it occurred. The case is a “paradigm of everything that is wrong with Wall Street and the regulators charged with protecting the public,” Pauley said. Prosecutors claimed Taylor lied to supervisors and fabricated trades in December 2007 to conceal an US$8.3 billion position in Standard & Poor’s 500 E-mini futures contracts, which bet on the direction of that index. Goldman fired him shortly thereafter.
LOANS
Countrywide settles US$500m
Bank of America Corp’s Countrywide unit won final approval of a US$500 million class-action settlement with investors who claimed they were duped into buying its mortgage-backed securities. US District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in Los Angeles said the settlement was a fair outcome because her previous rulings prevented the investors from recovering damages from Bank of America as Countrywide’s parent and because the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said as recently as June that it might put Countrywide in bankruptcy. The settlement resolves claims that Countrywide misled investors in offering documents about the quality of the home loans that were pooled for the securities.
E-COMMERCE
Drones a ‘fantasy’: EBay
EBay Inc chief executive officer John Donahoe called the delivery of products by drones — a project that rival Amazon.com Inc is working on — a fantasy. “We’re not really focusing on long-term fantasies,” Donahoe said in an interview with Emily Chang on Bloomberg Television when she asked if he would be showing her a drone. “We’re working on things that will change consumers’ experiences on Friday,” he said. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said this week that the world’s largest e-commerce company is testing drones to deliver small packages, an initiative that he anticipates will happen within five years. The endeavor was met with resistance from regulators and skepticism from couriers.
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
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