BANKING
Deutsche Bank faces change
Deutsche Bank AG on Sunday said that it would split its investment bank in two and overhaul its top management as the lender, Germany’s largest, tried to overcome legal problems and address criticism that it is inefficient. As part of the reorganization, which was approved by the bank’s supervisory board at a meeting on Sunday, several top executives are to leave, including two who were criticized for their handling of accusations that Deutsche Bank colluded with other banks to rig benchmark interest rates — Michele Faissola, head of the bank’s asset management unit, and Stephan Leithner, a member of the Deutsche Bank management board, said.
ENTERTAINMENT
App inspires NBC show
Executives at NBC have placed a bet that one of the world’s most popular mobile game apps would translate into a hit show. Late last month, the network announced plans to develop the trivia game QuizUp into a prime-time game show that would invite viewers to use the app during the broadcast. It ordered 10 episodes of QuizUp America, and the British network ITV has ordered a pilot. NBC is also in talks to sell the show in eight other countries, including China. QuizUp joins the ubiquitous game Angry Birds, which now doubles as a cartoon series in Finland.
INTERNET
Netflix adds three from EU
Netflix is to add Spain, Portugal and Italy to its current European roster of 13 countries, including Britain and Germany, this week. However Netflix’s efforts to expand overseas are facing a series of challenges that could hamper future growth, including patchwork regulatory restrictions worldwide and stiff competition in individual countries. In the EU, rules often limit what content can be made available in each of the region’s 28 countries.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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