UNITED STATES
Fed expects rate rises
The Federal Reserve on Friday said it expects that low unemployment and rising inflation will keep it on track to raise interest rates at a gradual pace over the next two years. By late next year, its key policy rate should be at a level that will be slightly restrictive for growth, the Fed said. The projection came with release of the central bank’s semi-annual monetary report to Congress.
TRADE
EU to meet Asian leaders
The EU’s top officials are next week to meet the leaders of China and Japan to boost ties in the face of fears that US President Donald Trump will spark an all-out global trade war. The trip by EU Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker includes the signing of a free-trade deal with Japan, as well as the discussion of trade tensions and climate change in China.
BANKING
Fortis settlement approved
A Dutch court on Friday ended a long-running saga over the 2008 dismantling of the Fortis bank insurance group, approving a record 1.3 billion euro (US$1.5 billion) settlement deal for out-of-pocket shareholders. The Amsterdam appeals court ruled that the deal, initially brokered in March 2016 between Belgian insurer Ageas and lawyers representing the shareholders, was “binding.” The decision over a seven-year legal battle overturned an earlier court decision in June last year, which had ruled the decision was “non-binding.”
AUTOMAKERS
Air bag action urged
The US government’s road safety agency is urging automakers to speed up replacement of potentially dangerous Takata Corp air bag inflators. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement on Friday that Heidi King, its top official, has met with 19 affected companies urging them to accelerate the recalls and to post recall plans on their Web sites. The statement did not say whether automakers agreed to the request.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook hires chip head
Facebook Inc has sent another signal that it is serious about building its own semiconductors, joining Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Amazon.com Inc in trying to make its own custom chips. The company this month hired Shahriar Rabii to be a vice president and its head of silicon. Rabii previously worked at Google, where he helped lead the team in charge of building chips for the company’s devices, including the Pixel smartphone’s custom Visual Core chip, according to his LinkedIn profile.
ENTERTAINMENT
Advisers favor Disney
Walt Disney Co’s US$71 billion deal with 21st Century Fox Inc won the endorsement of influential proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services Inc and Glass Lewis & Co, giving the entertainment giant another edge over rival suitor Comcast Corp. Both firms recommended that Fox shareholders vote in favor of the transaction at an investors’ meeting on July 27, with Glass Lewis saying that Disney offered “a unique, prospectively far-reaching opportunity” to capitalize on the acquisition.
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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