TOYMAKERS
Lego to open US plant
Lego A/S, the world’s largest toymaker, is to invest US$1 billion in its first US factory to tap into rising demand in the Americas. The plant is to be based in Virginia and employ more than 1,760 people, the Danish company said in a statement. Its operations, designed as carbon neutral, are set to begin in the second half of 2025. Lego, which is owned by the billionaire Kristiansen family, earlier this year reported that net income rose by one-third last year, reaching a record, as demand for its colorful building blocks is rising rapidly. Last year, it announced plans to open a new factory in Vietnam and the Virginia facility would become its seventh globally as the company expands its production network.
COSMETICS
Revlon files for bankruptcy
Revlon Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, unable to manage its heavy debt load amid the supply chain crunch and steep inflation. In the past few years, it has struggled to compete with newer brands that advertise heavily on social media. The cosmetics giant owned by billionaire Ron Perelman sought court protection in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, and listed assets totaling US$2.3 billion as of late April. That stands in contrast to total debts of US$3.7 billion, which include its 6.25 percent senior notes due in 2024, court documents dated on Wednesday showed.
RESTAURANTS
McDonald’s to pay US$1.3bn
McDonald’s Corp yesterday agreed to pay 1.25 billion euros (US$1.3 billion) to settle probes in France, where the Big Mac maker was accused of dodging taxes by unfairly shifting revenue to Luxembourg and Switzerland. McDonald’s agreed to a 508 million euros settlement to end a French criminal probe into tax fraud allegations, as well as to pay an extra 737 million euros in back taxes, Paris judge Stephane Noel said during a hearing. The McDonald’s settlement still needs to be approved by the judge. Under the terms of the deal, the firm would not plead guilty.
INTERNET
YouTube touts Shorts service
YouTube on Wednesday said that more than 1.5 billion people monthly tune into its Shorts video service, which competes with global sensation TikTok. YouTube Shorts went live less than two years ago, adding videos of no longer than 60 seconds to the mix of offerings on the platform. “Shorts has really taken off and are now being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month,” YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan said. YouTube last year launched a US$100 million fund to “reward creators” whose video clips attract audiences to the online stage.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Veolia to sell parts of Suez
France’s Veolia Environnement SA plans to sell all of Suez SA’s waste activities in Britain in an effort to appease the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. The decision came after the deal watchdog last month said that Veolia’s acquisition of Suez’s UK business might reduce competition in the water and waste treatment services sector and drive up prices as consumers are already being squeezed. The environmental-services giant completed the purchase of a large part of its smaller rival in the rest of the world earlier this year. The EU had conditionally approved the deal in December last year, while asking for local remedies.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
RSS