INTERNET
US decries Canberra plan
The US has urged Australia to abandon its plan to force Google and Facebook Inc to pay media outlets for their news content, saying that there could be “long-lasting negative consequences” for consumers and companies. Australia wants to force the US tech giants to pay local media organizations for hosting news content or face millions of dollars in fines, in one of the most aggressive moves globally to check their power. In a submission to an Australian Senate inquiry into the draft legislation, the Office of the US Trade Representative called it a “burdensome” plan that would “exclusively target” two American companies “without having first established a violation of existing Australian law or a market failure.”
AUTOMAKERS
Europe sales dive 23.7%
European vehicle sales last year plunged by nearly one-quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic provoked the worst crisis ever to hit the capital-intensive industry. New vehicle registrations sank 23.7 percent, or by 3 million vehicles, to 9.9 million units, figures released yesterday by the European Automobile Manufacturers Association showed. The association said that lockdowns and other restrictions “had an unprecedented impact on car sales across Europe.” All major markets recorded double-digit declines: 32.3 percent in Spain, 28 percent in Italy and 25 percent in France. Germany suffered a more contained 19 percent drop.
CHINA
State-owned firms’ profit up
Profit at state-owned companies that dominate the banking, oil and most other industries last year rose by as much as 25 percent as the country recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said yesterday. Total revenue for national-level companies rose 2.2 percent over 2019 to 30.3 trillion yuan (US$4.67 trillion), said Peng Huagang (彭華崗), secretary-general of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. Profit rose 2.1 percent to 1.4 trillion yuan, Peng said. Profit at 24 national-level state companies rose by more than 25 percent over 2019 and two had profit of more than 100 billion yuan, he said.
FOOD AND BEVERAGE
Intimex to offer stake in firm
Vietnam’s biggest coffee bean exporter Intimex Group plans to offer as much as a 49 percent stake to foreign investors this year, as the company looks to expand its instant coffee factory, Intimex chairman Do Ha Nam said. The former state-backed company, which is now owned by domestic investors, plans to issue new shares for the stake sale, said Nam, who is also chief executive officer. Talks with foreign investors are expected to begin after the instant coffee factory in Binh Duong Province reaches its current designed capacity of 4,000 tonnes a year this quarter, he said. Intimex eventually plans to list its shares on one of Vietnam’s stock exchanges, Nam said.
TECHNOLOGY
Ishrak plans acquisition firm
Intel Corp chairman Omar Ishrak is planning to raise funds for a blank-check firm targeting deals in the health technology sector, people with knowledge of the matter said. Ishrak, who previously ran medical device giant Medtronic PLC, could have filed public registration documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as early as yesterday, the people said. Ishrak is aiming to raise about US$750 million to US$1 billion for the special-purpose acquisition company, they said. Goldman Sachs Group Inc is leading preparations for the initial public offering, the people said.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
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