MEDICAL DEVICES
Medtronic to buy Covidien
US medical-device maker Medtronic PLC will buy its Irish-based competitor Covidien for US$42.9 billion, the company said late on Sunday. The deal would allow Medtronic to take advantage of Ireland’s lower business tax rates — 12.5 percent versus 35 percent in the US. The cash-and-stock transaction is valued at US$93.22 per Covidien share, or about US$42.9 billion based on Medtronic’s closing price of US$60.70 per share on Friday, the statement read. The combined firm will have a broad product portfolio and about 87,000 employees in more than 150 countries.
AVIATION
Airbus, Safran team up
Aerospace giant Airbus Group and French engine maker Safran SA yesterday announced a joint venture on space launchers, as Europe looks to compete with rising US rival Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX). The two companies said in a statement they would team up on production of Ariane rockets for Arianespace SA, which is facing intense competition from low-cost SpaceX in sending up communications satellites. The companies said the 50-50 joint venture would bring together “expertise in the launcher systems from Airbus Group as well as propulsion systems from Safran.”
ECONOMICS
Africa meet touts integration
Africa needs to first rely on internal investment if it is to achieve the infrastructure developments it urgently needs, Senegalese President Macky Sall said on Sunday at a regional summit. Sall also called for greater integration of the economies and infrastructures of African countries, and a “paradigm shift” in the way the resources of the continent are used. The two-day meeting of Dakar Financing Summit brought together the leaders of Mali, Nigeria and Benin, with 300 delegates.
RETAIL
Starbucks offers college aid
Starbucks Corp is rolling out a program that would allow its workers to earn an online college degree at Arizona State University at a steeply discounted rate. The coffee chain is partnering with the school to offer the option to 135,000 US employees who work at least 20 hours a week. The Seattle-based firm says it will phase out its existing tuition reimbursement program, which gave workers up to US$1,000 a year for education at certain schools.
AIRLINES
Wizz Air cancels listing
Wizz Air Hungary Airlines Ltd yesterday abandoned its plans for an initial public offering (IPO), citing current market volatility in the airline sector. The carrier said last month it planned to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange, seeking to raise 200 million euros (US$272 million) to strengthen its balance sheet as it seeks to fund more growth. Wizz Air is central and eastern Europe’s largest budget airline of central and eastern Europe with a market share of 38 percent, and makes money while traditional local airlines have struggled or gone bust in recent years.
COMPUTER SERVICES
Atos to list Worldline unit
Atos SE, a French computer-services provider, will split off its Worldline unit in an initial public offering valuing the business at about US$3 billion, seeking to capitalize on demand for electronic payment. The IPO is set to raise about 610 million euros through a sale of about 255 million euros of new shares and 355 million euros of existing shares, Paris-based Atos, which is keeping 70 percent, said yesterday.
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
EXPORT CONTROLS: US lawmakers have grown more concerned that the US Department of Commerce might not be aggressively enforcing its chip restrictions The US on Friday said it imposed a US$500,000 penalty on New York-based GlobalFoundries Inc, the world’s third-largest contract chipmaker, for shipping chips without authorization to an affiliate of blacklisted Chinese chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯). The US Department of Commerce in a statement said GlobalFoundries sent 74 shipments worth US$17.1 million to SJ Semiconductor Corp (盛合晶微半導體), an affiliate of SMIC, without seeking a license. Both SMIC and SJ Semiconductor were added to the department’s trade restriction Entity List in 2020 over SMIC’s alleged ties to the Chinese military-industrial complex. SMIC has denied wrongdoing. Exports to firms on the list
TALENT FACTOR: The nation’s chip sector would be difficult to replace, but to maintain that advantage, Taiwan must retain skilled workers, an academic said A group of experts on Sunday called on Taiwan to strive to maintain its world-leading position in the semiconductor industry, with a US-China chip dispute expected to continue regardless of who becomes the next US president. Tamkang University Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies director Li Da-jung (李大中) said at a Taipei seminar on global semiconductor security that the relationship between the two superpowers would remain confrontational. There appears to be “no turning back” in US-China relations, as US presidential candidates US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump are both expected to continue Washington’s hawkish stance