TECHNOLOGY
Snap to cut 20% of staff
Snap Inc is planning to lay off about 20 percent of its nearly 6,500 employees following weeks of planning, the Verge reported on Tuesday. Job cuts were to begin yesterday with the team working on Minis, small applications made by third-parties that run in the Snapchat app, affected the most, the report said. Zenly, the company Snap acquired in 2017 for social mapping, would also be affected by the workforce reduction. Snap shares fell 2.5 percent to US$10.01 at the close in New York on Tuesday. The stock has slumped 79 percent this year as the company has faced a slowdown in advertiser spending on the platform.
RETAIL
Asda to buy Co-op stations
Asda Stores Ltd agreed to buy the gas station business of The Co-operative Group in a deal valued at about ￡600 million (US$698.13 million) as it expands into Britain’s convenience retailing sector. The UK’s third-largest grocer would acquire 132 gas filling and grocery retail sites nationwide, three of which are development plots, a statement issued yesterday said. About 2,300 Co-op employees would transfer to Asda as part of the deal which would be funded with ￡438 million of cash and bank financing.
VIDEO GAMES
NetEase buys Quantic Dream
NetEase Inc (網易) has acquired French game developer and publisher Quantic Dream SA, the companies announced yesterday. China’s biggest games distributor after Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), NetEase is stepping up the international expansion of its gaming business to counter economic and regulatory headwinds at home. With Paris-based Quantic Dream, it secures its first studio in Europe and the developer of an upcoming game in the Star Wars franchise.
FRANCE
Inflation eased last month
Annual inflation eased last month from a three-decade high, the first slowdown in over a year, official data showed yesterday. Consumer prices hit 5.8 percent last month compared with 6.1 percent in July, which was the highest level since 1985, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies said. It was the first time that the annual inflation rate eased off since July last year, when it was at 1.2 percent.
REAL ESTATE
US home price growth slows
Home-price growth in the US decelerated in June as the sales slowdown gripped the market. A national measure of prices rose 18 percent year-on-year, smaller than the 19.9 percent climb in May, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index showed on Tuesday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc economists said in a note that price growth would likely slow sharply over the coming quarters, as rising mortgage rates continue to sideline buyers.
ENERGY
Wind, solar power use slows
Europe’s energy crisis and supply-chain bottlenecks have contributed to a sharp slowdown in the amount of solar and wind power corporations have agreed to buy worldwide. Private enterprises and public institutions announced 14.8 gigawatts of new power-purchase agreements with clean-energy facilities in the first seven months of the year, a report released yesterday by BloombergNEF showed. That is 24 percent below last year’s levels through July, making the year poised to see the first annual decline since 2016. Amazon.com Inc was the biggest corporate buyer of clean power in the first seven months, with more than five gigawatts announced.
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
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