WEAPONS
Remington files bankruptcy
US gunmaker Remington on Sunday filed for bankruptcy, as the Wmore than 200-year-old firearms manufacturer vies to restructure its massive debts. Remington had announced it would file for bankruptcy last month, just two days before a shooting at a Parkland, Florida high school that killed 17 people and reignited a national debate on gun control. The restructuring agreement would allow Remington to reduce about US$700 million of its consolidated debt, as well as inject a contribution of US$145 million of new capital into its operating subsidiaries, the company said.
FASHION
JD buys Finish Line
JD Sports Fashion PLC has agreed to buy US sportswear retailer Finish Line Inc, expanding into the North American market and snatching away a company in which Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct International PLC had built a stake. The takeover agreement is valued at US$13.50 per Finish Line share in cash, or a total of US$558 million. Due to the distinct geographies in which the two companies operate, JD Sports does not see any significant adjustments in headcount, the company said. The deal represents a 28 percent premium to Finish Line’s closing price on Friday.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Toshiba awaits approval
Embattled Japanese conglomerate Toshiba yesterday said it was still waiting for regulators to approve the key sale of its chip unit, a delay that could stymie plans to complete the deal this month. The firm agreed in September last year to sell its memorychip business to a consortium led by US investor Bain Capital, which was seen as crucial to keeping it afloat after multibillion-dollar losses. Under the deal, Toshiba had expected to meet all the sale conditions by Friday last week and complete them this Friday.
AUTOMAKERS
Great Wall goes global
Great Wall Motor Co (長城汽車), the king of sport utility vehicles in China, is feeling the rising heat from competition. After reporting earnings that more than halved last year, it is turning to potential customers abroad for its next phase of growth. The automaker plans to initially focus on countries such as Russia and those in the Middle East that have similar regulations as China, founder and chairman Wei Jianjun (魏建軍) told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday. The company will build its vehicles in Russia, with a factory capable of rolling out 80,000 vehicles annually set to start operations next year, he said. Plans to sell cars in the US starting 2021 are also on the cards, he said. Great Wall on Friday reported that its profit fell 52 percent last year to 5.03 billion yuan (US$796 million) as it spent more on incentives and discounts to help secure market share.
TECHNOLOGY
Google eyes China for AI
Google CEO Sundar Pichai expects China to play a crucial role in artificial intelligence (AI) as he keeps expanding the search giant’s workforce in the country, even as many of its services are blocked. Google has invested in Chinese start-ups, forged a patent alliance with Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) and is pushing its TensorFlow AI tools in the country, despite key services, such as search and e-mail, remaining blocked. The company recently opened a research lab in Beijing focused on AI, a blossoming field but one at the center of tensions between China and the US. Google’s lab falls under its cloud unit, and the company has suggested it is open to entering China with that business if it is allowed to.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
PARTNERSHIPS: TSMC said it has been working with multiple memorychip makers for more than two years to provide a full spectrum of solutions to address AI demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has been collaborating with multiple memorychip makers in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications for more than two years, refuting South Korean media report's about an unprecedented partnership with Samsung Electronics Co. As Samsung is competing with TSMC for a bigger foundry business, any cooperation between the two technology heavyweights would catch the eyes of investors and experts in the semiconductor industry. “We have been working with memory partners, including Micron, Samsung Memory and SK Hynix, on HBM solutions for more than two years, aiming to advance 3D integrated circuit
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
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