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.
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
Taiwan is attracting a growing number of foreign jobseekers as companies increasingly recruit overseas talent to ease labor shortages and expand global reach, recruitment platform 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) said yesterday. More than 40,000 foreign nationals searched for jobs in Taiwan through the platform last year, a 28 percent increase from a year earlier, the company said. Malaysians accounted for the largest share of overseas jobseekers at 12.2 percent, followed by Indonesians at 11.9 percent and Vietnamese at 10.8 percent. Indonesian applicants surged more than 50 percent year-on-year, while Vietnamese jobseekers rose by more than 30 percent. Applicants from the
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