TECHNOLOGY
Apple buying Texture
Apple Inc said it is acquiring Texture, a digital magazine service that lets users subscribe to more than 200 magazines for US$9.99 per month. Texture, offered via the app stores of Apple, Google and Amazon.com Inc, bolsters Apple’s efforts in online services and media. The Cupertino, California-based company aims to top US$50 billion in annual services revenue by 2021, and a magazine subscription service would likely contribute to that. The deal might help Apple boost relations with news outlets that have become wary of Facebook Inc and Google. Some publishers reported losing online traffic from Facebook after the social media network recently refocused on content from friends and family. Texture’s magazine catalog includes Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Bloomberg Businessweek.
INDIA
Inflation falls to 4.44 percent
Inflation dropped to less than 5 percent for the first time in three months, giving the central bank room to keep interest rates on hold for longer while providing relief to battered bond investors. Government data on Monday showed inflation at 4.44 percent last month, less than the 5.07 percent in January and less than the 4.7 percent estimate of economists polled by Bloomberg News. The easing for the second straight month offers bond investors in the country — the worst-performing market among major Asian economies — something of a temporary cheer. The benchmark 10-year bond yield fell three basis points to 7.6 percent.
UTILITIES
EON to cut up to 5,000 jobs
German utility EON SE on Monday said it plans to cut up to 5,000 jobs as part of its takeover of renewables unit Innogy from rival RWE AG, in a deal that would redraw the country’s energy landscape. In a joint statement, EON and RWE said they planned to complete their asset swap transaction, which surprised investors when it was unveiled this weekend, “by the end of 2019.” EON said it expects the takeover to generate about 600 million to 800 million euros (US$739.7 million to US$986.2 million) in savings annually from 2022, but added that the “integration process” would lead to “a reduction of a maximum of 5,000 jobs” out of a total of about 70,000 jobs. The ultimate goal of the transaction is to allow EON to focus on retail customers and on managing energy networks, essentially buying and selling electricity, while RWE is to specialize in generating power from fossil fuels and renewables.
CRYPTOCURRENCIES
Coincheck refunds US$440m
Japan-based virtual currency exchange Coincheck yesterday said it had refunded more than US$440 million to customers following the hack of its systems, which was one of the largest thefts of its kind. The company said it used its own funds to reimburse about ￥46.6 billion (US$434.8 million) to all 260,000 customers who lost their holdings of NEM, a leading cryptocurrency. “Procedures have been completed with the accounts of all 260,000 customers,” company spokesman Yosuke Imai told reporters. Thieves siphoned 523 million units of the cryptocurrency from Coincheck — then valued at US$547 million — during the Jan. 26 hack, which exceeded the US$480 million in bitcoin stolen in 2014 from another Japanese exchange, Mt. Gox. The 2014 hack prompted Japan to issue regulations requiring exchanges to obtain a license, but Coincheck was allowed to continue operating while the Japanese Financial Services Agency was reviewing its application.
EXTRATERRITORIAL REACH: China extended its legal jurisdiction to ban some dual-use goods of Chinese origin from being sold to the US, even by third countries Beijing has set out to extend its domestic laws across international borders with a ban on selling some goods to the US that applies to companies both inside and outside China. The new export control rules are China’s first attempt to replicate the extraterritorial reach of US and European sanctions by covering Chinese products or goods with Chinese parts in them. In an announcement this week, China declared it is banning the sale of dual-use items to the US military and also the export to the US of materials such as gallium and germanium. Companies and people overseas would be subject to
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
TENSE TIMES: Formosa Plastics sees uncertainty surrounding the incoming Trump administration in the US, geopolitical tensions and China’s faltering economy Formosa Plastics Group (台塑集團), Taiwan’s largest industrial conglomerate, yesterday posted overall revenue of NT$118.61 billion (US$3.66 billion) for last month, marking a 7.2 percent rise from October, but a 2.5 percent fall from one year earlier. The group has mixed views about its business outlook for the current quarter and beyond, as uncertainty builds over the US power transition and geopolitical tensions. Formosa Plastics Corp (台灣塑膠), a vertically integrated supplier of plastic resins and petrochemicals, reported a monthly uptick of 15.3 percent in its revenue to NT$18.15 billion, as Typhoon Kong-rey postponed partial shipments slated for October and last month, it said. The
COLLABORATION: The operations center shows the close partnership between Taiwan and Japan in the field of semiconductors, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Tokyo Electron Ltd, Asia’s biggest semiconductor equipment supplier, yesterday launched a NT$2 billion (US$61.5 million) operations center in Tainan as it aims to expand capacity and meet growing demand. Its new Taiwan Operations Center is expected to help customers release their products faster, boost production efficiency and shorten equipment repair time in a cost-effective way, the company said. The center is about a five-minute drive from the factories of its major customers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) advanced 3-nanometer and 2-nanometer fabs. The operations center would have about 1,000 employees when it is fully utilized, the company
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