AVIATION
JAL details budget carrier
Japan Airlines (JAL) yesterday said its planned budget airline would run medium-haul international services between Tokyo and major cities in Asia, the US and Europe from summer 2020, hoping to take advantage of an expected expansion in the nation’s low-cost market ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The budget carrier, which is to be named later, is to become a subsidiary of JAL, the firm said, adding that it might seek other investors to expand its business model. JAL has thus far limited its low-cost operations to its partial control of Jetstar Japan Co, which is owned by JAL and Australia’s Qantas Group.
ENTERTAINMENT
Sony to buy Peanuts stake
Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp’s music unit yesterday said that it is buying a stake in Peanuts Holdings LLC, the company behind Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Sony Music Entertainment signed a deal with DHX Media Ltd, based in Nova Scotia, Canada, to acquire 49 percent of the 80 percent stake DHX holds in Peanuts. Sony Music is to own 39 percent and DHX 41 percent. The family of Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts, is to continue to own 20 percent of Peanuts. The parties hope to complete the acquisition on or about June 30, Tokyo-based Sony said. It said it sees Peanuts as “world-class,” and hopes to use its character business expertise to strengthen the brand and push the business to grow.
AVIATION
Airbus CFO to step down
Airbus SE chief financial officer (CFO) Harald Wilhelm plans to step down next year, meaning the European planemaker would have entirely new top management as it grapples with the future of the A380 superjumbo jet and a long-running bribery investigation. Wilhelm, 52, decided “in agreement with the board of directors” that he would leave in April next year after 27 years with the company, Toulouse, France-based Airbus said in a statement yesterday. Airbus is searching for a replacement for chief executive officer Tom Enders, who decided in December last year that he would leave in April next year. His No. 2, chief operating officer Fabrice Bregier, left after Airbus decided to pass him over for the chief executive officer job.
TELECOMS
Vodacom misses target
Vodacom Group Ltd’s full-year earnings missed estimates after Africa’s biggest wireless carrier by market value invested heavily in its network and integrated the acquisition of a stake in Kenya’s Safaricom Ltd. Headline earnings per share were flat at 9.23 rand for the year through March, the Johannesburg-based company said in a statement yesterday. That compared with an average analyst estimate of 9.27 rand. Even so, the unit of Vodafone Group PLC boosted sales and added customers after selling more smartphones in South Africa.
AUTOMAKERS
Nissan profit down 32%
Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co’s profit last quarter fell 32 percent from a year earlier as a strong yen, rising raw materials costs and research expenses bit into earnings. The company yesterday said that its January-to-March profit was ￥168.8 billion (US$1.5 billion), down from ￥249 billion last year. Quarterly sales fell 0.9 percent to ￥3.4 trillion. Nissan said some losses for the fiscal year through March, such as costs from production halts in Japan due to illegal inspections that surfaced last year, have ended.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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