AUTO INDUSTRY
India car sales drop further
India’s domestic passenger vehicle sales fell for the ninth straight month last month, an auto industry body said yesterday, amid a deepening crisis in the nation’s automobile sector that has triggered large-scale job losses. Sales of passenger vehicles to auto dealers fell 30.9 percent to 200,790, data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) showed. Commercial vehicles sales dropped 25.7 percent to 56,866 units, SIAM said. Motorcycle and scooters sales declined 16.8 percent to about 1.51 million units, while passenger car sales fell 36 percent to 122,956 units, the data showed.
BEVERAGES
Diageo to sell Cuban rum
A subsidiary of British drinks giant Diageo PLC on Monday announced a joint venture with Havana’s state distiller to market and distribute Cuban rum, defying US efforts to block foreign investment in the communist-run country. The Diageo subsidiary and state company Cuba Ron will be equal partners in Santiago SA, a company that will internationally market the Santiago de Cuba brand, one of the island’s premium spirits. To comply with US law, the Diageo subsidiary would have no interaction with any of the beverage group’s US-based businesses or involve any US employees.
COSMETICS
L’Oreal guilty of trade theft
L’Oreal SA must pay a California-based start-up US$91.4 million for stealing its trade secrets, breaching a contract and infringing two patents related to a popular system that protects hair during bleaching treatments, a federal jury ruled on Monday. Olaplex LLC had accused the French giant of stealing the secrets in a meeting in California in 2015, when the companies were in talks for L’Oreal to buy the start-up. L’Oreal, during a week-long trial in Wilmington, Delaware, said it independently conceived the use of a critical acid in August 2014 and developed its products on its own. The jury also found that L’Oreal’s acts were intentional, leaving the door open for the judge to substantially increase the damages if he chooses.
INTERNET
Verizon selling Tumblr
Verizon Communications Inc agreed to sell the blogging platform Tumblr to Automattic Inc, the latest sign the wireless giant is dismantling its online empire. Terms of the transaction were not material, Verizon said, suggesting Tumblr sold for a tiny fraction of the US$1.1 billion it fetched in 2013. Verizon acquired the site as part of its 2017 purchase of Yahoo. Automattic already owns a group of publishing sites, including WordPress and Longreads, and sees Tumblr as a good fit. The Wall Street Journal previously reported on the sale, saying that Automattic would take on about 200 staffers.
TELECOMS
Huawei hires trade lobby
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) has hired the law firm Sidley Austin LLP to lobby on trade as the US pressures allies to join it in blacklisting the Chinese telecom giant, which has found itself increasingly mired in US President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing. The lobbying, which began last month, will focus on export controls, trade sanctions “and other national security-related topics,” according to a disclosure filed with the US Senate. The document shows that Huawei is deepening its ties to Sidley Austin, which is already working on the company’s legal challenges in the US, while also ramping up its lobbying presence.
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
RSS