MARKETING
Diet change for Pepsi
Diet Pepsi made without aspartame is scheduled to hit shelves across the US today, marking the biggest change to the beverage in three decades. PepsiCo Inc started reformulating the recipe about two years ago. The new recipe for Diet Pepsi and Diet Pepsi Wild Cherry replaces aspartame with a blend of sucralose and acesulfame potassium. The move follows a 5.2 percent decline in Diet Pepsi’s sales volume last year, according to Beverage Digest.
GERMANY
K+S rejects Potash bid
German fertilizer producer K+S rejected a revised 7.85 billion euro (US$8.6 billion) takeover offer from Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc that included guarantees of no site closures or firings for five years, according to two people familiar with the bid. K+S rejected the latest offer in part because it felt the lack of legal or cost penalties should the guarantees be broken mean they will be impossible to enforce, the people said. K+S also has concerns that if Potash Corp gains control of more than 75 percent of the company, it could make previous guarantees void, one source said.
GREEK BAILOUT
Finland takes hard line
Finland could stay out of a planned third bailout deal for Greece, the Nordic country’s Eurosceptic foreign minister Timo Soini said on Saturday, amid calls from his nationalist party, The Finns, for a more critical stance toward the EU. Finland has taken one of the hardest lines against bailouts among eurozone members and got even tougher in May when The Finns joined a new center-right coalition. At a meeting of eurozone finance ministers last month, Finland supported the idea of a temporary “Grexit” — Greece leaving the bloc — but eventually accepted that new loan talks could begin.
MANUFACTURING
Rolls-Royce rumors tackled
Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC chief executive officer Warren East addressed employees after meeting with ValueAct Capital Management to dispel concern the activist fund may pressure the engine-maker into disposing of some assets. ValueAct, which has increased its stake in Rolls-Royce to 5.44 percent, manages more than US$18 billion and has helped influence the direction of companies including Microsoft Corp and Sara Lee Corp. “The activist shareholder has caused a lot of speculation in the press,” East wrote in an internal memo last Monday. “I suggest we engage with the activists rather than shy away, properly explain our plans and the opportunities, and get them aligned with our agenda.”
AUCTIONS
Sotheby’s earnings drop
Sotheby’s on Friday reported an unexpected second-quarter decline in part because it lost money on a painting that sold for less than anticipated. The latest quarter was “rather bumpy,” Sotheby’s chief executive officer Tad Smith told investors on a post-earnings conference call. “We’ve made a lot of progress since I joined four months ago, but there’s an incredible amount of work to be done.” The New York-based company’s second-quarter profit fell 13 percent from a year earlier to US$67.6 million after it moved a London sale to the third quarter and the stronger dollar eroded US$11.3 million in auction commission revenue. Sotheby’s said it also lost money on the sale of a major painting it had acquired earlier in the year, declining to provide details about the work.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
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