FRANCE
Economy slid 0.1% in Q2
The French economy slowed 0.1 percent in the second quarter after growing 0.7 percent in the previous three months, a revised estimate by the INSEE national statistics agency showed yesterday. It is the first time the eurozone’s No. 2 economy has contracted since the first quarter of 2013. The statistics agency had previously said economic growth was flat in the April-to-June period. The slowdown was driven by a sharp decline in inventories, INSEE said, which shaved 0.7 points off national output, while trade added 0.6 points. Household spending declined 0.1 percent.
LODGING
Airbnb valued at US$30bn
Home-sharing giant Airbnb Inc just raised US$555 million and is seeking even more in a funding round that values the company at US$30 billion, a source close to the company said. The San Francisco-based start-up has taken in US$555.46 million through a private funding round that was launched in late July and remained open, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. The funding round could reach US$850 million, the source said. Money taken was expected to be used to fuel growth and international expansion of Airbnb.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple buys Tuplejump for AI
Apple Inc has acquired Indian machine-learning start-up Tuplejump Software Pvt Ltd, as it seeks to expand its expertise in artificial intelligence (AI). The iPhone maker bought the Hyderabad, India-based company in June, according to a person familiar with the deal who asked not to be identified. Tuplejump’s software specializes in processing and analyzing big sets of data quickly. The deal was reported earlier by TechCrunch. The purchase price was not disclosed. The Tuplejump deal is Apple’s third acquisition in the industry this year. Tuplejump has about a dozen employees, many of whom were already based on the US west coast, the person said.
BANKING
CaixaBank raises US$1.5bn
CaixaBank SA, Spain’s third-largest lender, on Thursday sold shares for 1.3 billion euros (US$1.5 billion) to fund its takeover of Portugal’s Banco BPI SA. The company sold 585 million shares, the equivalent of a 9.9 percent stake, to private investors, CaixaBank said in a statement. Shares were sold at 2.26 euros each, a 3.7 percent discount to their closing price. CaixaBank agreed to pay about 900 million euros to buy the 55 percent of BPI it does not already own. The bank increased its offer to 1.134 euros a share from 1.113 euros on Wednesday after BPI shareholders agreed to scrap voting rights limits, a key condition for the bid and one that made the offer mandatory.
TECHNOLOGY
BlackBerry nets Radar client
BlackBerry Ltd has found a customer for its fleet-tracking device, taking a first step into the crowded market for monitoring cargo trucks and trains. The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is to install 500 units of the BlackBerry Radar on trailers owned by Oakville, Ontario-based trucker Caravan Group. The Radar is a box that sticks on the back of a tractor-trailer container and frequently updates its owner on the trailer’s temperature, location and whether the door is open or closed. A spokeswoman for BlackBerry declined to say what the deal was worth.
The New Taiwan dollar is on the verge of overtaking the yuan as Asia’s best carry-trade target given its lower risk of interest-rate and currency volatility. A strategy of borrowing the New Taiwan dollar to invest in higher-yielding alternatives has generated the second-highest return over the past month among Asian currencies behind the yuan, based on the Sharpe ratio that measures risk-adjusted relative returns. The New Taiwan dollar may soon replace its Chinese peer as the region’s favored carry trade tool, analysts say, citing Beijing’s efforts to support the yuan that can create wild swings in borrowing costs. In contrast,
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
VERTICAL INTEGRATION: The US fabless company’s acquisition of the data center manufacturer would not affect market competition, the Fair Trade Commission said The Fair Trade Commission has approved Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s (AMD) bid to fully acquire ZT International Group Inc for US$4.9 billion, saying it would not hamper market competition. As AMD is a fabless company that designs central processing units (CPUs) used in consumer electronics and servers, while ZT is a data center manufacturer, the vertical integration would not affect market competition, the commission said in a statement yesterday. ZT counts hyperscalers such as Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com Inc and Google among its major clients and plays a minor role in deciding the specifications of data centers, given the strong bargaining power of
TARIFF SURGE: The strong performance could be attributed to the growing artificial intelligence device market and mass orders ahead of potential US tariffs, analysts said The combined revenue of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the Taipei Exchange for the whole of last year totaled NT$44.66 trillion (US$1.35 trillion), up 12.8 percent year-on-year and hit a record high, data compiled by investment consulting firm CMoney showed on Saturday. The result came after listed firms reported a 23.92 percent annual increase in combined revenue for last month at NT$4.1 trillion, the second-highest for the month of December on record, and posted a 15.63 percent rise in combined revenue for the December quarter at NT$12.25 billion, the highest quarterly figure ever, the data showed. Analysts attributed the
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