■ Technology
HP plans to cut more jobs
Hewlett-Packard (HP) on Tuesday raised its estimates for job cuts to 15,300 under a big reorganization launched last year. The information technology powerhouse had estimated cuts of 14,500 jobs when it announced the restructuring last July. In its latest update to investors, the Palo Alto, California, group said the "realignment is part of HP's efforts announced in July last year to simplify the company's structure, reduce costs and bring a renewed focus on serving customers ... These ongoing efforts will result in the overall elimination of 15,300 positions by end of fiscal year 2006 [in October] and are intended to streamline the company by restructuring support functions and improve accountability and executive focus through a simpler reporting structure with fewer management layers." Chief executive Mark Hurd said the restructuring is expected to be completed by November.
■ Telecoms
SK Telecom inks China pact
South Korea's top mobile carrier SK Telecom said yesterday it has secured a foothold in China's fast-growing wireless telephone market by forging a strategic alliance with China Unicom. SK Telecom said it would buy convertible bonds worth about US$1 billion from China Unicom, the country's second-largest mobile phone operator with 130 million subscribers, on July 5. The three-year bonds will be converted into a 6.67 percent stake, it said. "The strategic alliance will help SK Telecom secure a foothold for direct inroads into China which is an attractive telecom market with growth in both quantity and quality," SK Telecom chief executive officer Kim Shin-bae said in a statement. SK Telecom said the 18-month exclusive alliance highlighted cooperation in CDMA mobile operations, including terminal production, content service and marketing and infrastructure. SK Telecom will invest more in China if its partner obtains a 3G service license, he said.
■ Robotics
Microsoft shows new kit
Microsoft showed off a robot-building software kit on Tuesday that it said will free inventors to make creations limited only by their imaginations. Microsoft pulled the curtain back on its Microsoft Robotics Studio at the RoboBusiness and Exposition 2006 in the US state of Pennsylvania. "It can address both high-end robots and very simple robots. It is about Microsoft building a bootstrap, or a platform, to allow the industry to integrate the pieces they are developing," said Tandy Trower, manager of the Microsoft Robotics Group. Anyone wanting to test-drive the software could download it without charge at msdn.microsoft.com/robotics.
■ Mining
Australian firms hike prices
Australian mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto said yesterday they had reached agreement with Chinese steel mills on a 19 percent hike in iron ore prices this year. BHP Billiton said it a statement on its Web site had reached agreement "with a number of its Chinese steel customers on prices for contracted iron ore tonnage for the 2006 contract year ... Prices increased by 19 percent over prices negotiated in respect of the 2005 year across the range of lump and fines iron ore products supplied by BHP Billiton," the statement said. Rio Tinto announced similar details between its Hammersly Iron division and Chinese steel companies in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange yesterday.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so