■ Internet Music
Tesco to offer downloads
Tesco Plc, the UK's biggest retailer, will compete with Apple Computer Inc's iTunes and Napster Inc by offering digital music downloads on its Web site, the London-based Times reported, without saying where it got the information. Tesco's music service will be supported by Woolworths Group Plc's Entertainment UK music wholesale unit, which supplies the retailer with CDs and DVDs, the newspaper said. Tesco's Web site's download service will run on Microsoft Corp's Windows Media Audio format, preventing owners of Apple's iPod digital music player from being able to make use of tracks on it, the Times said. Tesco will offer over 500,000 music tracks at a charge of &$163;0.79 (US$1.46) for a single track, the newspaper said.
■ Software
Infosys to convert shares
India's second largest software exporter, Infosys Technologies Ltd, plans to increase the availability of its shares on New York's Nasdaq stock exchange by draining the Indian stock markets of 16 million shares, or nearly 6 percent, of its stock. The company said yesterday it will let its Indian shareholders sell their stock to US investors, convert such shares into a form tradable on Nasdaq and cancel their listing on India's stock exchanges. "All equity shareholders in India ... would be eligible to tender their equity shares in the offering," the company said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Infosys said it will seek the approval of its shareholders for the conversion on Dec. 18. The price and timing of the sale is to be determined later. Infosys, which employs 33,000 people, expects revenues in the year ending in March to exceed US$1.55 billion. The company derives about 65 percent of its revenues from the US.
■ Outsourcing
GE sells stake
US manufacturing and energy giant General Electric Co will sell 60 percent of its global outsourcing business for US$500 million to two US investment companies, GE officials announced yesterday. Pramod Bhasin, chief executive officer of GE Capital International Services, said in a statement that the stakes would be sold to equity investors, General Atlantic Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners, in a deal reached over the weekend. "This transaction allows us to offer our quality business process services to an expanding roster of leading companies worldwide," Bhasin said. Until now, 95 percent of the back-office business in GE Capital International Services was from General Electric.
■ Auto industry
Honda invests in China
Japanese automaker Honda said yesterday it would spend US$340 million to quadruple capacity at its joint plant with Dongfeng Motor in Wuhan, China, to 120,000 units by 2006. The company said construction will begin this year to triple the size of plant buildings and improve on its current annual capacity of 30,000 units. "Looking at the long-term needs of the Chinese auto market, this was deemed to be a necessary investment," said Honda Motor Co spokesman Yuji Hatano. Dongfeng Honda Automobile (Wuhan) Co is a 50-50 joint venture between Honda and Dongfeng Motor Industry Investment Corp. The Wuhan plant will boost the number of workers to 2,800 from 930 by 2006 and will begin making the Civic sedan on top of its current output of the CR-V sport utility, Honda said.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
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