MEDIA
Fox raises offer for Sky
Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc has raised its offer for Britain’s Sky PLC in an agreed deal valuing the pay-TV group at US$32.5 billion, seeing off rival bidder Comcast Corp for now. Fox, which has been trying to buy the pan-European group since December 2016, has offered to pay ￡14 per share, a 12 percent premium to Comcast’s offer, but below the ￡14.80 Sky shares were trading yesterday. Analysts said the bid threw down the gauntlet for Comcast to return with a higher offer.
MEDIA
Univision mulls Onion sale
Univision Holdings Inc is considering selling Gizmodo Media Group and the Onion, a retreat from English-language Web sites in favor of media aimed at Hispanic Americans. The company has begun a formal process to explore a sale of the properties, such as Gizmodo, Jezebel, Deadspin and Lifehacker, it said in a statement on Tuesday. Univision’s satirical Onion portfolio includes its namesake site, along with Clickhole, the A.V. Club and other brands.
ENERGY
Chevron ruling upheld
Ecuador’s highest court upheld in a ruling released on Tuesday a US$9.5 billion damages award against oil giant Chevron Corp over decades of pollution that harmed indigenous people. Chevron was sentenced in Ecuador over environmental damage blamed on Texaco, which Chevron acquired in 2001, in Ecuador’s rainforest from 1964 to 1990. Chevron did not deny that pollution had occurred, but blamed it on state-run Petroecuador and has refused to pay the settlement on the grounds that it was the result of fraud and bribes.
ENERGY
Romania raises gas tax
Romania has passed a law to impose additional taxes on gas companies operating in the Black Sea, prompting an outcry on Tuesday from energy companies active in the nation. Parliament adopted the legislation late on Monday, with the left-wing government saying it will bring in substantial new revenues and help increase its energy independence from Russia. The new law introduces tariffs on the revenues of offshore operators and also obliges them to sell at least 50 percent of their output on the local market.
MACROECONOMICS
UK economy grew 0.3%
The British economy expanded 0.3 percent in May from the previous month, a strong performance that is likely to further bolster expectations that the Bank of England would raise interest rates next month. The Office for National Statistics on Tuesday said that much of the growth was due to a 2.9 percent growth in construction. It was the first time the agency published monthly figures for growth, which has traditionally been reported quarterly.
COMMODITIES
Glencore gears up for probe
Glencore PLC has set up a board committee to respond to a US probe into possible corruption at the world’s biggest commodity trader. The committee is composed of chairman and former BP PLC chief executive officer Tony Hayward, as well as non-executive directors Patrice Merrin and Leonhard Fischer, Glencore said yesterday. Glencore last week said the US Department of Justice demanded documents relating to possible corruption and money laundering regarding its business in Nigeria, Congo and Venezuela over the past decade.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
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