AUTOMAKERS
Volkswagen board backs CEO
Volkswagen AG chief executive officer Martin Winterkorn is to remain in his job and can look forward to having his contract extended, the leadership of the board said on Friday, after a comment by chairman Ferdinand Piech raised widespread doubts about his future. Winterkorn “is the best possible” chief executive for Volkswagen, the statement from the six-strong executive committee of Volkswagen’s 20-member supervisory board said. Piech is part of the committee. The committee will propose extending Winterkorn’s contract at a board meeting in February next year, it said, without specifying how long the extension may be.
TRANSPORT
Netherlands probes Uber
Dutch prosecutors on Friday announced a criminal probe into Uber Technologies Inc, in the latest salvo of an increasingly bitter battle between European governments and the popular taxi service app. The move comes after a Dutch judge convicted three taxi drivers belonging to Uber’s low-cost service UberPOP of ferrying passengers without a permit and slapping each with a 1,500 euro (US$1,600) fine. Dutch judges in December last year banned UberPOP from taking bookings via its smartphone app, threatening the US company with fines of up to 100,000 euros. Uber said it would contest the ruling and continued to offer UberPOP.
BEVERAGES
Coca-Cola buys Culiangwang
Coca-Cola Co, the world’s largest beverage company, will buy China’s Xiamen Culiangwang Beverage Technology Co (廈門粗糧王飲品科技) for about US$400 million in cash, gaining a line of plant-based protein drinks in a renewed push into the Asian market. Coca-Cola is acquiring the business from China Culiangwang Beverages Holdings Ltd (中國粗糧王飲品控股), according to a statement from the Atlanta-based company. Xiamen Culiangwang sells a range of protein drinks under the China Green brand.
INTERNET
Facebook cuts fake ‘likes’
Facebook Inc on Friday said that its war against fake likes is paying off so well that many “bad actors” who built businesses on the tactic are closing shop. During the past six months, Facebook has tripled the number of seemingly bogus likes detected and blocked before reaching pages, Facebook site security engineer H. Kerem Cevahir said in a blog post. Facebook also removes fake likes from pages at the social network, notifying account administrators to the actions. Cevahir said that fraudulent behavior was only “a tiny fraction” of the overall activity on Facebook.
AEROSPACE
Rolls-Royce wins order
Rolls-Royce said it had won a US$9.2 billion order to supply engines for 50 A380 aircraft for Dubai’s Emirates airline, providing a boost for the British company after a torrid year of profit warnings. Rolls-Royce said at a joint press conference in London that the order was the largest in its history, pushing its shares up 2.1 percent in early trading, making it one of the biggest gainers on the FTSE 100 index. It is the first time the Gulf carrier has ordered Rolls-Royce engines for its superjumbo fleet, the rest of which is powered by Engine Alliance, a joint venture of General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. The companies said the aircraft in question would enter service from next year.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS