■ Media
Comcast, Disney pen deal
Comcast Corp and the Walt Disney Co said on Tuesday they signed a landmark multibillion-dollar distribution deal that allows the cable operator to distribute Disney content through its video-on-demand service. As part of the multiyear deal, Comcast, the largest US cable TV operator, also agreed to buy Disney's 39.5 percent stake in the E! Entertainment Television channel for US$1.23 billion. Comcast currently holds a 60 percent interest in the channel. No other financial terms of the deal were disclosed.
■ Property
China raises project fees
The Chinese government will double land use fees for new construction projects from Jan. 1 to cool frantic expansion in the property market, state media reported yesterday. This means that the fee will rise to up to 140 yuan (US$18) per square meter, according to a notice issued by the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the central bank. The aim is to curb excessive growth in fixed asset investment, the 21st Century Business Herald said, citing a notice published by the central bank.
■ Computers
Dell looking up
Driven by solid sales of laptops and a more diverse product line, computer maker Dell Inc finally had some good news for investors amid an ongoing federal investigation of the company's accounting and financial reporting. In a delayed, preliminary earnings report for the last quarter, Dell beat analysts' expectations, earning US$677 million, or 30 cents per share, on revenue of US$14.4 billion, compared with earnings of US$606 million, or 25 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Analysts had been looking for quarterly earnings of 24 cents per share on sales of US$14.44 billion, a survey by Thomson Financial said.
■ Internet
Livedoor strips segment
Japanese Internet startup Livedoor Co plans to sell all its financial segment to investment firm Advantage Partners LLP, news reports said yesterday. Business daily Nihon Keizai reported the plan, adding that Livedoor will convene a board meeting as early as this week to approve the sale of Livedoor Financial Holdings Co, whose seven firms include brokerage and consumer credit operations. Livedoor's financial businesses generated 80 percent of the group's operating profit and the sale would mark the collapse of a business model built by former President Takafumi Horie, the business daily said.
■ Mergers
French energy deal delayed
French government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said yesterday that a court decision that delays the proposed merger of energy groups GDF and Suez did not fundamentally put the deal in question. "There was certainly a decision by the appeals court but it does not put the project's relevance in question," Cope told the television channel I-Tele. On Tuesday, the Paris appeals court upheld a decision by a lower court in favour of Gaz de France's works council -- institutions in French companies through which trade unions have a voice in operations -- that sought a postponement of a company board meeting on the merger, scheduled for yesterday.
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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