■ technology
"HP's profit beats estimates
PHOTO: CNA
Hewlett-Packard Co's fourth-quarter profit easily exceeded Wall Street's expectations, bolstered by surging laptop sales and continued strong demand for highly profitable printer ink. The board of the Palo Alto-based computer and printer maker also authorized an additional US$8 billion for stock buybacks, a sign the company believes its shares are undervalued. Net income leaped 28 percent in the three months ended Oct. 31 to US$2.16 billion or US$0.81 per share. Excluding one-time charges, HP's profit was US$0.86 per share, US$0.04 higher than the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
■ beverages
Beer sales plummeting
Sales of beer in Britain have dropped to the lowest levels since the 1930s, brewers said yesterday, as the country turns increasingly to wine and spirits. The number of pints per day sold in British pubs peaked in 1979, but has slumped by 22 percent -- or 7 million pints -- since then, the British Beer and Pub Association said. The group claims that from 1997 to last year beer duties grew by 27 percent, against 16 percent for wine, 11 percent for cider and 3 percent for spirits, cutting brewers' profits by 78 percent between 2004 and last year alone.
■ automobiles
Ssangyong may drop SUV
South Korea's Chinese-owned automaker Ssangyong Motor said yesterday it was considering shutting down production lines for sport utility vehicles (SUV) amid sluggish sales. Ssangyong Motor has suffered from slow demand for its flagship SUV models Rexton and Actyon at home and abroad, company officials said. "Talks are now under way between management and union representatives to suspend the SUV lines," spokesman Kim Bum-suk said. Schedules had yet to be agreed on, he said. The Seoul Economic Daily newspaper quoted an unidentified union leader as saying the automaker would suspend the SUV lines by the end of February.
■ aviation
Madrid airport to rank third
Madrid's international airport will become Europe's third busiest in terms of departures in 2010, surpassing London's Heathrow and Amsterdam's Schipol, a study by Eurocontrol, Europe's air navigation agency, said on Monday. The number of takeoffs from Madrid-Barajas is expected to rise to 255,442 in 2010, a 17.4 percent jump over last year and the biggest increase among Europe's 10 busiest airports, the study showed. Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport will remain Europe's busiest airport with more than 297,000 departures in 2010, while Frankfurt's Main airport will continue in second place with over 265,000 takeoffs, the study said.
■ china
Wen warns of asset bubble
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said that the nation needed to prevent an equity bubble from forming and to curb real estate speculation, Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, quoting Wen's speech during a visit to Singapore. The report made no mention of specific new measures to regulate stock and real estate prices following a boom in both markets. "At a time when stock prices are high, there are voices that want to stop an asset bubble, and in addition saying that if the bubble bursts, it will hurt China's economy," Wen was quoted as saying in a speech on Monday. "I feel both views are correct.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
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