CHINA
Box office passes US$6bn
The nation’s box office has grown by almost 50 percent so far this year to surpass US$6 billion in ticket sales. The Film Bureau said this year’s box office sales hit 40 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion) as of Thursday night, an increase of 48 percent year on year. China is the world’s No. 2 movie going market after the US. Chinese films accounted for more than 59 percent of box office revenue. Among the top earners were Monster Hunt, a Chinese live-action animation film, and Fast & Furious 7.
BRITAIN
Finance taxes top ￡66.5bn
The government collected ￡66.5 billion (US$99 billion) in taxes from the financial-services industry during this fiscal year, up 1.4 percent from a year earlier and the highest total since 2007, according to the local government body that oversees the main financial district. The industry contributed 11 percent of total government tax receipts, the City of London Corporation and PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a report published yesterday. Employment taxes generated ￡30 billion, the biggest share. Corporate tax revenue rose 41 percent to ￡7.6 billion, while the bank levy, a post-financial crisis measure based on the size of lenders’ balance sheets, generated ￡2.7 billion, a 23 percent increase from a year earlier.
EUROPEAN UNION
McDonald’s taxes probed
Regulators are to investigate tax deals between McDonald’s and Luxembourg which enabled the US chain to escape paying taxes on European franchise royalties from 2009, a move which could lead to hefty back taxes for the company. Confirming what sources with knowledge of the matter previously told Reuters, the bloc’s antitrust regulators said on Thursday they would launch the probe into arrangements that could be defined as illegal state aid. The EU competition enforcer said McDonald’s had not paid any corporate taxes in Luxembourg or the US on royalties paid by franchisees in Europe and Russia since 2009, as a result of two tax rulings by the Luxembourg authorities.
BEVERAGES
Glass in beer prompts recall
An Australian beer company owned by SABMiller PLC said yesterday it has recalled more than a million bottles of beer after broken glass was found in the product, a setback at the start of traditionally busy holiday season sales. The recall also presented an unwelcome distraction for SABMiller as it seeks to win over regulators around the world for a proposed US$106 billion buyout by rival Anheuser-Busch InBev. Melbourne-based Carlton & United Breweries, which SABMiller bought in 2011, said in a statement it had recalled a batch of its Carlton Dry beer because of an unspecified issue “as a result of packaging.”
COMPUTERS
IBM sets billion-dollar goal
IBM Corp has set an internal revenue goal for SoftLayer, its cloud-infrastructure business, of US$1 billion for next year, a person with knowledge of the matter said. That is an increase of about a quarter from the US$700 million to US$800 million in revenue the unit is expected to take in this year, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the financial information is still private. SoftLayer, which IBM acquired in 2013, had US$335 million in sales the year before the acquisition.
The Fair Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing review of Grab Holdings Ltd’s US$600 million acquisition of Foodpanda Taiwan’s operations, announced on March 23, has taken on fresh urgency as industry experts warn that the transaction could embed significant Chinese cybersecurity vulnerabilities into Taiwan’s digital infrastructure through Grab’s deep ties to autonomous-driving firm WeRide (文遠知行). Less than 16 months after the FTC blocked Uber Eats’ direct attempt to acquire Foodpanda Taiwan — citing potential combined market shares of 80 to 90 percent — the emergence of Grab as the buyer has prompted questions about whether the same competitive harm is simply being rerouted
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
IMAGE SENSORS: The Japanese company would be the controlling shareholder of the venture, with development and production lines to be set up in Kumamoto Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp to create a joint venture to develop and produce next-generation images sensors. The partnership seeks to explore and address emerging opportunities in physical artificial intelligence (AI) applications, such as automotive and robotics, paving the way for innovations and expanded technological advancements, TSMC said in a statement. Sony would be the majority and controlling shareholder of the joint venture, the statement said, adding that the company would set up development and production lines in its newly constructed fab in Kumamoto Prefecture’s
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves climbed back above US$600 billion at the end of last month, as investment gains, currency valuation effects and renewed foreign inflows offset volatility seen earlier in the month, the central bank said yesterday. Reserves stood at US$602.49 billion, up US$5.6 billion from the previous month, the central bank said. The rebound reflected returns on reserve assets, fluctuations in major currencies against the US dollar and the central bank’s market operations aimed at maintaining orderly trading conditions, Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民) said. Financial markets were volatile early last month, with foreign investors recording net purchases
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