TRADE
Canada plans meeting
Canada plans to convene a meeting of trade ministers to discuss how to reform the troubled WTO, but the US and China will be left out for now, Joseph Pickerill, a spokesman for Canadian Minister of Trade Jim Carr, said on Friday. The meeting would take place in October in Ottawa, Pickerill said. The ministerial group aims to identify areas at the WTO that can be modernized, he said, adding that Canada has already put forward suggestions on e-commerce, investment protection and accelerating trade with developing nations.
ENTERTAINMENT
Disneyland raises wages
Disneyland has agreed to raise the minimum wage for employees at its California theme park to US$15 an hour. Disneyland Resort announced the 40 percent increase on Thursday and said it will go into effect on Jan. 1 next year. As part of a deal with labor unions, the resort said it will immediately increase the current minimum of US$11 an hour to US$13.25. It will be at US$15.45 in 2020. The deal affects more than 9,700 employees, including those working in attractions, store operations and costuming, among others.
E-COMMERCE
Jury awards IBM US$80m
A US jury on Friday awarded IBM Corp US$83.5 million after finding that Groupon Inc infringed four of its e-commerce patents. The verdict cements the prowess of IBM’s portfolio of more than 45,000 patents and is a boon to its intellectual-property licensing revenue, which brought in US$1.19 billion last year.
RAILWAYS
SNCF rules out job cuts
French state railway monopoly SNCF is not planning compulsory jobs cuts, company chief executive Guillaume Pepy said on Friday after it reported a net loss of 762 million euros (US$888 million) in the first half of the year after being hit by a 37-day strike. SNCF reported first-half sales of 16.1 billion euros, down 3.3 percent compared with the same period a year earlier after the strike by rail workers from April to June over French government reform plans, Pepy said.
FOOD
Tyson deal expected
Tyson Foods Inc is close to acquiring Keystone Foods LLC, a US supplier of chicken nuggets to McDonald’s Corp, according to two people familiar with the matter. Tyson is in exclusive talks with Keystone’s owner, Brazil’s Marfrig Global Foods SA, the people said. Marfrig is seeking to raise more than US$3 billion from the sale of the business, people with knowledge of the matter said in May.
INDUSTRY
Investor opposes breakup
German industrial giant Thyssenkrupp’s biggest shareholder on Friday strongly opposed calls by activist investors to break up the venerable institution as it battles through a leadership crisis. “There will be no break-up of the company on my watch,” Ursula Gather, head of the Krupp Foundation — which has a 21 percent stake in the group — told German news weekly Der Spiegel. “Job security” and “the principles of the social market economy” took precedence over a desire by some to cash in, she said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
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