E-COMMERCE
Singles’ Day growth slows
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) filled a record US$30.7 billion in orders on Sunday during its annual Singles’ Day shopping frenzy, but growth slowed from previous years. The world’s biggest 24-hour shopping event, celebrating its 10th year, started early on Sunday and once again shattered its own sales mark as Chinese online shoppers seized on promotions to snap up everything from electronics to clothing and housewares. Sales rose 27 percent, compared with 39 percent last year. Alibaba’s share price, which doubled last year, is down 16 percent this year.
TECHNOLOGY
SAP to buy Qualtrics
SAP SE, Europe’s biggest technology company, on Sunday said it has agreed to pay US$8 billion cash for survey-software provider Qualtrics International Inc, which was preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). The deal was approved by boards of both companies and Qualtrics shareholders, SAP said. The sale is expected to close in the first half of next year. Prove, Utah-based Qualtrics filed for an IPO last week. Its products help companies get feedback from employees and customers. Qualtrics said in a regulatory filing that it has more than 9,000 customers including more than 75 percent of Fortune 100 companies.
DISTILLERS
Diageo to sell 17 brands
Diageo PLC has agreed to sell Seagram’s VO whiskey, Parrot Bay coconut liqueur and another 17 brands to closely held US distiller Sazerac Co for US$550 million. The proceeds from the sale, about ￡340 million (US$438 million) after tax and transaction costs, would be returned to shareholders through a share repurchase program, the London-based company said in a statement yesterday. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to complete early next year. The transaction is expected to generate an exceptional gain on disposal of approximately ￡110 million, the company said.
TELECOMS
Italian firm mulls new chief
Telecom Italia SpA’s board of directors might seek the resignation of chief executive officer Amos Genish as early as this week, newspaper Il Messaggero reported without saying where it got the information. Directors backed by both Vivendi SA, the carrier’s biggest shareholder, and US activist Elliott Management Corp, have agreed to call an extraordinary board meeting to obtain Genish’s resignation, according to the newspaper. Telecom Italia chairman Fulvio Conti is considering Rocco Sabelli and Alfredo Altavilla as possible successors, Messaggero reported.
ELECTRONICS
Samsung to unveil new phone
Samsung Electronics Co is to roll out its foldable smartphone in the first half of next year and produce at least 1 million of them, Yonhap News reported. DJ Koh, president of Samsung’s mobile communication business, told reporters after a conference in San Francisco that he would launch the device in the first half “no matter what,” Yonhap reported on Sunday. A new version of the foldable phone is to be unveiled every year like Samsung’s flagship phones, such as the Galaxy S9. The company might raise the production volume of its foldable devices depending on market reception, Koh was quoted as saying. Samsung shipped more than 300 million phones in total last year, according to TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), a Taipei-based market research firm.
Japanese technology giant Softbank Group Corp said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia Corp, raising US$5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier. Tokyo-based Softbank said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia last month, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT. Softbank reported its profit in the April-to-September period soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about US$13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7 percent year-on-year
CRESTING WAVE: Companies are still buying in, but the shivers in the market could be the first signs that the AI wave has peaked and the collapse is upon the world Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported a new monthly record of NT$367.47 billion (US$11.85 billion) in consolidated sales for last month thanks to global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Last month’s figure represented 16.9 percent annual growth, the slowest pace since February last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 11 percent. Cumulative sales in the first 10 months of the year grew 33.8 percent year-on-year to NT$3.13 trillion, a record for the same period in the company’s history. However, the slowing growth in monthly sales last month highlights uncertainty over the sustainability of the AI boom even as
AI BOOST: Next year, the cloud and networking product business is expected to remain a key revenue pillar for the company, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu said Manufacturing giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted its best third-quarter profit in the company’s history, backed by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Net profit expanded 17 percent annually to NT$57.67 billion (US$1.86 billion) from NT$44.36 billion, the company said. On a quarterly basis, net profit soared 30 percent from NT$44.36 billion, it said. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said earnings per share expanded to NT$4.15 from NT$3.55 a year earlier and NT$3.19 in the second quarter. Gross margin improved to 6.35 percent,
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
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