■ Engineering
Siemens to eliminate jobs
Siemens AG, Germany's largest engineering company, has decided to slash more than 1,000 jobs at its Munich-based headquarters to help cut costs, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung weekly.
At least 500 jobs may be eliminated at Siemens' Com division, the newspaper reported in a preview of an article to be published in yesterday's edition, citing no one. Further cost cuts may also hit its mobile-phone business. Siemens' fixed-line phone business may also suffer several hundred job cuts while other reductions may hurt mobile-phone production at the Kamp-Lintfort and Bocholt factories, the paper said. Peter Gottal, a Siemens spokesman, wasn't immediately available for comment. Siemens is considering options for its unprofitable mobile-phone business and intends to announce a plan by the end of the month.
■ Software
Oracle wraps up purchase
Oracle Corp completed its US$10.3 billion purchase of PeopleSoft Inc, creating the world's second-biggest maker of business-management software. The transaction was completed on Saturday, Bob Wynne, a spokesman for Redwood, California-based Oracle, said yesterday. Investors had handed over 97 percent of PeopleSoft stock, more than the 90 percent needed to complete the acquisition. PeopleSoft capitulated
in December, accepting Oracle chief executive officer Lawrence Ellison's sweetened US$26.50 a share offer to end an 18-month battle that pitted PeopleSoft against its investors and led to
the ouster of its chief executive. The combination vaults Oracle from No. 3 in the US$22 billion market for programs that handle tasks such as payroll and human resources.
■ Retail
FamilyMart looks overseas
FamilyMart Co intends to more than double the number of its stores overseas in four years as growth in the Japanese convenience store market slows, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said. The company plans to open stores in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China and the US, aiming to bring the total number overseas to 11,770 by March 2009, the newspaper said today. Tokyo-based FamilyMart aims to generate more than 20 percent of its pretax profit from overseas by March 2009, compared with an estimated 4 percent for the year ending March, the paper said. It plans to increase its proportion of convenience stores abroad to 60 percent from 40 percent, the paper said. FamilyMart, Japan's third-largest convenience store, last week raised its sales forecast for the year ending Feb. 28 by 1.4 percent to ?254.2 billion (US$2.43 billion).
■ Automobiles
Mitsubishi inks new deals
Troubled Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi Motors has inked deals to supply its autos to Japan's Nissan Motor and French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen from next year, a news report said yesterday. Mitsubishi will sell mini-vehicles to Nissan and sports utility vehicles to Peugeot on an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) basis, the Yomiuri Shimbun said. Mitsubishi, the fourth-largest Japanese automaker and hit by defect cover-ups and sagging sales, will include the OEM
deals as part of its new revitalization plan to be released later this month, the newspaper said. Peugeot has said it had no alliance plans and no active cooperation project with Mitsubishi.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
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