■ Technology
Sony profits fall 23 percent
Sony Corp said profit at its electronics business fell 23 percent in the third quarter as price cuts lowered earnings from its older television models, portable audio equipment and video cameras. Operating profit at the unit, which accounts for about 70 percent of Sony's sales, fell to 49.4 billion yen (US$478 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from 64.4 billion yen a year earlier, the Tokyo-based maker of the PlayStation Portable game machine said today while releasing final earnings for the period. Sony, the world's second-largest consumer-electronics maker, has had to lower prices to compete with companies such as Apple Computer Inc in music players and Samsung Electronics Co in flat-panel televisions.
■ Auto Sector
Ssangyong out of the red
South Korea's Ssangyong Motor, acquired by China's Shanghai Automotive Industry, emerged yesterday from a five-year creditor-led debt workout program, company and bank officials said. "Ssangyong Motor has put an official end to its debt workout plan today, finally returning to the position of a normal firm which can stand on its own," said Chun Hyung-jin, a Chohung Bank official handling Ssangyong's debt. The announcement coincided with a board of directors meeting which voted a Shanghai Automotive executive onto the board. Ssangyong, which specializes in sports utility vehicles and large sedans, was placed under a debt restructuring program by creditors in 1999 when parent Daewoo Group collapsed. The Chinese automaker signed a contract in October to buy a controlling 48.9 percent stake in Ssangyong for US$500 million.
■ Hotels
The Plaza to be revamped
The Plaza Hotel, the New York landmark where children's book heroine Eloise romped and Neil Simon's movie Plaza Suite unfolded, will close at the end of April and reopen next year as a condominium-hotel-retail complex, its owner said on Wednesday. At its reopening, scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2006, the hotel at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue that looks like a baroque stone wedding cake overlooking Central Park and Grand Army Plaza, will contain about 200 luxury condominiums and 150 hotel rooms. The hotel now has 805 rooms. The condos will range from one to four bedrooms on the top 12 floors of the building as well as some lower floors facing Central Park. The new hotel rooms will be located on lower floors along the property's 58th Street side.
■ Retail
Starbucks' earnings up
Starbucks Corp said strong sales of holiday drinks, gift cards and music helped boost quarterly earnings by 31 percent, and the coffee retailer raised its earnings forecast slightly for its current fiscal year. The Seattle-based retailer on Wednesday reported earnings of US$144.9 million, or US$0.35 per share, up from US$110.4 million, or US$0.27 per share, in the same period last year. Revenue for the 13 weeks ended Jan. 2 was US$1.59 billion, up 24 percent from US$1.28 billion in the comparable year-ago period. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were expecting earnings of US$0.34 per share on revenue of US$1.59 billion. Michael Casey, Starbucks' chief financial officer, said the company's quarterly growth showed that Starbucks is able to draw loyal customers despite an October price increase in its lattes, cappuccinos and other specialty coffee drinks.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
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