■ FINANCE
Lone Star head questioned
Lone Star Funds chairman John Grayken is being questioned by South Korean prosecutors as a suspect in a case on whether the US fund bought Korea Exchange Bank at an artificially low price, Yonhap News reported. The investigation will also look into whether Grayken was involved in illegally manipulating the stock price of the South Korean bank's credit card unit in 2003 to acquire it cheaply, the news agency reported, citing Song Hae-eun, a spokesman for the investigation.
■ ELECTRONICS
Toshiba cuts prices in US
Toshiba Corp, the main backer of the HD DVD standard for new video-disc players, has cut prices of its HD DVD players by as much as 50 percent in the US. The new prices follow an announcement two weeks ago by Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros Entertainment that it will stop selling movies with Toshiba's HD DVD format. By the end of May, the studio will only sell high-definition DVDs in Sony Corp's Blu-ray standard. The decision gives Sony a boost in the industry's biggest format war since VHS beat out Betamax in the 1980s. The new prices "are designed to meet the potential demand for HD DVD players in the US market," the US unit of Toshiba said in a statement.
■ ENERGY
Suntech receives boost
Suntech Power Holdings Co (尚德), the world's fourth-largest maker of solar-power modules, is Merrill Lynch & Co's top pick among its Asian peers because of an ability to overcome increased obstacles to raising funds. Merrill has a price target of US$100 for Suntech Power's stock, suggesting a potential 50 percent gain this year, analysts led by Lu Yeung wrote in a report yesterday. New products Suntech Power plans to market should position the company as the "technology differentiator" among other global leaders, the analysts said. The "rising difficulty of financing may squeeze out small vendors," the Merrill analysts wrote. "The ones who could not get investors' attention will face severe challenges in seeking additional funding and will be forced to go out of business in a few years."
■ BANKING
Macquarie hires Rohner
Macquarie Group Ltd, Australia's largest investment bank, appointed Anton Rohner as head of Asia renewable energy to step up its expansion in the US$20 billion market, the company said in a press release. Rohner will report to Andrew Low, Asia head of Macquarie Capital Advisers, and Oliver Yates, an executive director, the release said. Rohner joins from Roaring 40s, a venture between CLP Holdings Ltd, the bigger of Hong Kong's two electricity producers, and Hydro Tasmania, which provides half of Australia's electricity from renewable energy sources.
■ PATENTS
Eco-friendly technology
International Business Machines Corp (IBM), the leading recipient of US patents, is joining Sony Corp, Nokia Oyj and Pitney Bowes Inc in offering the rights to environmentally friendly technologies for free. The effort, called the Eco-Patent Commons, is designed to help companies save energy and water and curb pollution IBM said yesterday in a joint statement with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Geneva. The Eco-Patent Commons is the first forum for sharing intellectual property with environmental uses.
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
TAIWAN DEFENSE: The initiative would involve integrating various systems in a fast-paced manner through the use of common software to obstruct a Chinese invasion The first tranche of the US Navy’s “Replicator” initiative aimed at obstructing a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be ready by August, a US Naval Institute (USNI) News report on Tuesday said. The initiative is part of a larger defense strategy for Taiwan, and would involve launching thousands of uncrewed submarines, surface vessels and aerial vehicles around Taiwan to buy the nation and its partners time to assemble a response. The plan was first made public by the Washington Post in June last year, when it cited comments by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station