EUROPEAN UNION
Sanrio fined over curbs
Authorities on Tuesday fined Sanrio Co, the Japanese firm behind Hello Kitty, for restricting cross-border online sales of toys, mugs, bags and other products featuring the cartoon cat girl. Sanrio yesterday said the 6.2 million euros (US$7 million) fine would be recorded as an extraordinary loss in its fiscal first-quarter financial statement. “It was fined because it violated the bloc’s competition rules with licensing agreements that banned traders from selling merchandise in different countries in the bloc,” European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said. Sanrio said it had cooperated with the investigation.
CHINA
Factory prices unchanged
Factory prices were unchanged last month from a year earlier, data showed yesterday, reviving the prospect of deflation as a trade spat with the US hits the crucial manufacturing sector. The producer price index came in at zero, down from a 0.6 percent rise in May, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The reading is the weakest since August 2016 and fell short of the 0.3 percent forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. At the same time the consumer price index — a gauge of retail inflation — hit 2.7 percent, the same as last month, which was the highest since February last year.
UNITED KINGDOM
Automakers lift economy
The economy rebounded in May as vehicle factories resumed work following Brexit-related shutdowns. GDP rose 0.3 percent after a decline in the previous month, the Office for National Statistics said yesterday. In the three months through May, GDP rose 0.3 percent. Powering the recovery was the manufacturing sector, as vehicle output surged 24 percent on the month, following a drop of the same magnitude in April. Manufacturing as a whole increased 1.4 percent and provided the biggest contribution to the overall expansion.
AVIATION
Plane tickets to see new tax
France is to introduce a new charge on plane tickets from next year, with revenue used to fund environmentally friendly alternatives, French Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne said on Tuesday. The “ecotax,” costing 1.50 euros to 18 euros, would apply to most flights departing in the country, Borne said. The only exceptions would be for domestic flights to Corsica and overseas territories, and connecting flights that pass through the country. It would not apply to flights arriving in the country. Shares in Air France-KLM and budget airlines EasyJet PLC and Ryanair Holdings PLC dropped following the announcement. Industry group International Air Transport Association called the ticket charge “misguided.”
TECHNOLOGY
Cisco buying Acacia
Cisco Systems Inc has agreed to buy Acacia Communications Inc for about US$2.6 billion, the technology giant’s latest acquisition as it seeks technologies to meet customer demand for more robust networks. The San Jose, California-based company is to pay US$70 a share, a 46 percent premium to Acacia’s closing price on Monday, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. Cisco’s latest acquisition makes chips and machines that help translate optical signals into electronic data. Acacia’s products are used to speed the flow of information around data centers and telecommunication networks. The deal is expected to close in the second half of Cisco’s fiscal 2020 year.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS