■ IPO
Google delays offering
Google Inc is delaying its initial public offering (IPO) by a week because of logistical problems related to institutional investors registering to bid on the shares, according to a per-son familiar with the matter. The delay wasn't caused by a technological problem or a lack of bidders, the per-son stressed. Rather, the process of registering bid-ders for the auction-style IPO is taking longer than anticipated, the source said. Part of the problem, the person said, was that the IPO, which is being led by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston, is being handled through an auction format that had never been tried before. "It's all new," the person said. "We just hit a speedbump." Officially, Google had never set a date for the deal, though people familiar with the matter had pegged the date for next week. A delay would push the deal later into a month that is traditionally light on IPO volume.
■ Banking
HSBC buys stake in China
British bank HSBC is buying a 19.9 percent stake in one of China's biggest state banks for US$1.7 billion, dramatically expanding the foreign presence in the top ranks of Chinese finance, state television reported yesterday. HSBC signed an agreement yesterday to buy into Shanghai-based Bank of Communications, one of the country's main state-owned commercial banks. The deal is the biggest move yet by a foreign bank into the nation's rapidly evolving banking industry. Beijing has promised to let foreign banks compete on an equal footing with Chinese institu-tions by 2006 under commit-ments to the WTO. It would give HSBC a platform to promote credit cards and other products to China's growing consumer market, possibly giving it an edge over foreign rivals such Citibank and Standard Chartered.
■ Entertainment
Sony BMG launched
Sony Music Entertainment and BMG, the music unit of the German media conglom-erate Bertelsmann AG, said on Thursday they have formally combined their music businesses. Sony BMG Music Entertainment will rival Vivendi's Universal Music Group for market share. Sony BMG will be headquartered in New York. Sony and Bertelsmann each own half of the new com-bined company. The deal did not include the parent companies' music publish-ing, manufacturing or physical distribution busi-nesses. The Federal Trade Commission approved the merger last week. Andrew Lack, Sony Music's former chairman and chief execu-tive, was named chief executive of the new firm.
■ Investment
Merrill Lynch buys stake
Merrill Lynch Securities
has signed a deal with South Korea's LG Card Co to invest US$400 million in the heavily indebted credit card issuer, LG Card said yester-day. "It is true that Merrill Lynch has agreed to buy
all the US$400 million worth of asset-backed securities which we are going to issue in mid-October," a LG Card spokesman said. LG Card said earlier Merrill Lynch would serve as the lead manager in the issuance of the securities which would be backed by LG Card's receivables. Ahn Sung-eun, managing director of Merrill Lynch's Seoul branch office, told Moneytoday, an Inter-net financial news provider, that the firm would buy all the issue. "The reason that Merrill Lynch Securities is investing US$400 million
in LG Card ... is because Merrill Lynch trusts the [South] Korean economy."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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