E-COMMERCE
Rakuten to ban ivory sales
Japanese online retailer Rakuten Inc yesterday said it was banning the sale of ivory on its Web site, shutting a major sales route in one of the world’s largest legal ivory markets. The company made the decision following mounting international criticism of the trade, with trading to be phased out over the next month, a Rakuten spokesman said. However, ivory trading continues on Yahoo Japan, the country’s biggest online auction site. “We do not think that the legal ivory trade in Japan has any impact on African elephant numbers,” a Yahoo Japan spokesman said. “It is important to recognize there are cultural differences between different countries.”
CHIPMAKERS
Qualcomm fights iPhones
Qualcomm Inc is seeking to block iPhone shipments to the US, arguing that the phones infringe on six of its patents. Qualcomm planned to request the import ban yesterday with the US International Trade Commission, which has the power to block shipments of products that violate intellectual property. However, such disputes can take a long time to resolve, so iPhone sales are not immediately at risk. Apple Inc’s iPhones are assembled in Asia before being imported for sale in the US. On Thursday, Qualcomm filed a related lawsuit in US District Court in San Diego seeking damages.
E-COMMERCE
Merger in US home shopping
US broadcasting network QVC’s parent company is taking control of the Home Shopping Network Inc for about US$2.6 billion in stock to create what it says will be the third-largest e-commerce company in the US. The companies long known as bases for home shopping on TV had been dealing with sluggish sales as Amazon.com Inc dominates online. The combination will help give QVC and HSN the scale they need to take on more established online competitors. Liberty Interactive Corp, which owns QVC, already owned 38 percent of HSN. Integrating them will make them “stronger than they are individually and stronger yet as a stand-alone entity” in a “changing and difficult market,” Liberty president and CEO Greg Maffei said.
AUTOMAKERS
Former VW exec investigated
US authorities have accused a former executive of Volkswagen AG’s (VW) Audi luxury brand of giving orders to program diesel engines to cheat on emissions tests. Giovanni Pamio, 60, an Italian citizen, is accused of being a leader in a conspiracy that was part of an embarrassing scandal that has cost VW more than US$20 billion in criminal penalties and lawsuit settlements. He is the eighth ex-VW employee charged in the case that is being investigated by the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal unit.
FOOD
Campbell to acquire Pacific
Campbell Soup says it has agreed to pay US$700 million to acquire Pacific Foods, which makes organic broths and plant-based drinks. The deal marks the latest effort by Campbell to diversify its product lineup to better reflect changing tastes toward foods that are seen as healthier or fresher. The New Jersey-based company’s other acquisitions have included hummus and salsa maker Garden Fresh and organic baby food maker Plum. Pacific Foods generated about US$218 million in sales for the year ending May 31, according to Campbell. Campbell says it will continue operating Pacific Foods out of Tualatin, Oregon, where it was founded in 1987.
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
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
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
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
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