ELECTRONICS
Bose, Beats dismiss lawsuit
Attorneys for Bose Corp and Beats Electronics LLC have agreed to dismiss a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Bose. Bose alleged in a federal court in Delaware in July that Beats was infringing on several Bose patents regarding noise-canceling headphones. Bose filed a parallel complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) seeking to halt US imports of Beats Studio and Beats Studio Wireless headphones. Attorneys for Beats had filed an unopposed motion asking that the Delaware lawsuit be put on hold pending a final determination by the ITC, which is investigating Bose’s claims.
TECHNOLOGY
Silver Lake exits Web deal
Silver Lake Management LLC has shelved an attempt to acquire and combine photo-sharing Web sites Shutterfly and Snapfish, after it failed to reach a deal by Friday’s deadline, a person with knowledge of the matter said. Silver Lake, the biggest technology-focused buyout firm, decided against buying Snapfish from Hewlett-Packard Co after performing due diligence, the person said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. While the private-equity firm also decided not to pursue a deal with Shutterfly by the company’s deadline, Silver Lake is still open to returning to talks, the person said.
RETAIL
Comerci to sell 200 stores
Controladora Comercial Mexicana SAB is close to an agreement to sell the bulk of its 200 retail stores to Grupo Comercial Chedraui SAB in a transaction that will probably amount to more than US$4 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the deal. Comerci, as the Mexico City-based supermarket operator is known, would keep the real estate and lease it to Chedraui, which would use its own brand for the stores purchased, the person said on Saturday. Comerci has a market value of 55.2 billion pesos (US$4.09 billion). While final terms of the accord for its retail stores are yet to be set, Comerci is pushing for Chedraui to pay cash, the person said.
BANKING
Swaps changes agreed
Eighteen global banks have agreed to swaps contract changes designed to work with government rules for unwinding failed firms, a step that may help end the view that some financial companies are “too big to fail.” Counterparties of banks involved in resolution proceedings will delay contract termination rights and collateral demands under the plan announced by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA). The change is intended to give regulators more time to arrange orderly resolutions, ISDA, the main industry group for the US$700 trillion global swaps market, said in a statement released in Washington.
AMERICAN SAMOA
Investment to create jobs
Government officials expect up to 1,000 jobs to be created when a Filipino company invests US$100 million in a new food processing plant. Governor Lolo Matalasi Moliga on Friday said executives from AVM Bernardo Engineering are in the territory this week to finalize the paperwork for the project. The company expects to begin construction early next year. Operations would begin the following year. American Samoa Commerce Department director Keniseli Lafaele said the plant plans to first focus on frozen fish-based sausage, ham, nuggets and patties. The plant is also set to produce coconut water, mango and other juices.
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
Property transactions in the nation’s six special municipalities plunged last month, as a lengthy Lunar New Year holiday combined with ongoing credit tightening dampened housing market activity, data compiled by local land administration offices released on Monday showed. The six cities recorded a total of 10,480 property transfers last month, down 42.5 percent from January and marking the second-lowest monthly level on record, the data showed. “The sharp drop largely reflected seasonal factors and tighter credit conditions,” Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) deputy research manager Chen Chin-ping (陳金萍) said. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday fell in February this year, reducing
New vehicle sales in Taiwan plunged about 37 percent sequentially last month as the long Lunar New Year holiday and 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday cut short the number of working days, along with the lingering uncertainty over import tax cuts on US vehicles, market researcher U-Car said in a report yesterday. New car sales last month totaled 22,043, slumping from 35,073 units in January and down 19.89 percent from 37,515 in February last year, U-Car data showed. Sales of imported luxury cars, led by Mercedes-Benz, plummeted about 45 percent to 3,109 units last month from 5,663 units in the previous month,
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