COURIERS
FedEx sues US government
FedEx Corp is suing the US government over export rules it says are virtually impossible to follow because it handles millions of packages a day. The delivery company says most packages are sealed when customers drop them off. It compares names and addresses of shippers and recipients against a government list of groups and people who could be national security risks. FedEx sued the US Department of Commerce and US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Monday in federal court in Washington.
SOFTWARE
Capgemini to buy Altran
Capgemini SE said it is to acquire Altran Technologies SA for 14 euros a share to expand its software engineering network with Internet and technology companies. The total cash portion of the deal amounts to 3.6 billion euros (US$4.10 billion), excluding net debt of 1.4 billion euros, the companies said in a statement on Monday. Paris-based Capgemini is pursuing additional scale to keep up with a consolidating information technology services industry. When combined, the companies would be able to help clients adopt new solutions, Capgemini chief executive Paul Hermelin said.
GAMBLING
Bern cracks down
Switzerland is implementing one of Europe’s strictest gambling laws next week, essentially blocking foreign-based companies from the Swiss market and forcing the nation’s online gamblers to use domestic sites, Bern said on Monday. In a statement, the federal commissions in charge of gambling, lotteries and betting said they would soon publish a “blacklist” of online gambling sites that would be blocked as of Monday next week.
REAL ESTATE
Record Shenzhen land sale
A sale of five plots of residential land in Shenzhen on Monday raised 22.4 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion), a record single-day haul since the city started open land bidding in 2001. Bidding was so fierce that each plot reached the maximum price set by authorities, leaving developers to compete on how much space they would set aside for affordable housing to be transferred to the government for free. On top of that, condo buyers would be banned from flipping properties for the first three years.
INSURANCE
FWD in MetLife talks
FWD Group (富衛) is in advanced talks to buy MetLife Inc’s Hong Kong insurance unit in what would be the latest in a string of acquisitions by the insurer backed by billionaire Richard Li (李澤楷), people familiar with the matter said. The companies could reach an agreement in the next few weeks, the people said. A deal could value MetLife Hong Kong at less than US$400 million and would help FWD boost its presence in the territory, the people said. At that price, MetLife would sell the asset for less than its US$400 million embedded value, a measure of the value of its insurance contracts.
INTERNET
Apple responds to complaint
Music streaming service Spotify Technology SA pays Apple Inc a 15 percent fee on about 680,000 of its 100 million premium customers, Apple disclosed in a response to Spotify’s complaint with European antitrust regulators. Premium customers pay a monthly fee or are in a free trial of Spotify’s premium service, which is ad free. Spotify has a total of 217 million customers, including users of its free service.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian movie has wowed international audiences and critics, securing multiple Oscar nominations and drawing fresh interest in the Latin American giant’s film industry. Experts say the success of The Secret Agent, which has won four Oscar nominations, a year after I Am Still Here won Brazil its first Oscar, is no fluke, with a bit of a push from the country’s political climate. “This is neither a coincidence nor a miracle. It is the result of a lot of work, consistent policies, and, of course, talent,” Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio International Film
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