■GAMING
EA drops Take-Two bid
Shares of Take-Two Interactive plunged on Monday after Electronic Arts (EA) ended its seven-month pursuit of the maker of Grand Theft Auto. In midday trading in New York, Take-Two shares fell 23 percent to US$16.84. EA, the world’s largest video-game maker and publisher of titles such as The Sims, has been fighting to acquire Take-Two since February, when it offered to pay up to US$26 per share, or about US$2 billion. Take-Two rejected the advances, saying the offer undervalued the company and its expansion plans. However, the companies started formal talks last month, which EA ended on Sunday after deciding that it would not be able to integrate the company in time for the critical holiday shopping season.
■ELECTRONICS
Best Buy to buy Napster
Electronics chain Best Buy is to buy online music service Napster Inc for US$121 million in a move to expand the retailer’s digital music offerings, the companies said on Monday. Best Buy will pay US$2.65 a share for Napster, which has 700,000 subscribers to its digital entertainment services. The offer is almost double Napster’s closing price before the announcement of the deal. Napster also has US$67 million in the bank. Best Buy chief operating officer Brian Dunn said the deal would help boost the retailer’s online media operations. “Over time, we hope to strengthen our offerings to consumers, who we believe will increasingly seek devices and solutions that enable them to access their content wherever, whenever and however they want,” Dunn said.
■SEMICONDUCTORS
Intel launches six-core chip
Intel on Monday rolled out its first chip with six brains, unveiling a “multi-core” microprocessor that boosts computing muscle while cutting back on electricity use. The world’s leading computer chip maker’s new Xeon 7400 series microprocessor is tailored for businesses that want to boost server performance while conserving on space and energy. Intel executives say the Xeon 7400 is part of an “incremental migration” toward chips with limitless numbers of “cores” that seamlessly and efficiently share demanding computer processing tasks. Intel and rival Advanced Micro Devices have two-core and four-core chips on the market.
■ENERGY
Brazil declines OPEC invite
Brazil has declined a recent invitation from Saudi Arabia to join OPEC, citing plans to refine, not export, crude oil from its recently discovered deep water reserves, top energy officials said on Monday. Mines and Energy Minister Edison Lobao said Brazil determined it didn’t need the cartel, because it planned to boost oil income by refining crude into products like gasoline for export abroad, the state’s Agencia Brasil news agency reported. Paulo Roberto Costa, a top executive with Brazil’s state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA oil company, confirmed the government had decided not to join OPEC.
■BANKING
WaMu’s debt rating down
Standard & Poors (S&P) on Monday lowered its debt rating for the major West Coast bank Washington Mutual (WaMu), a week after Moody’s downgraded its debt to non-investment or “junk” status. S&P’s move further complicated plans to raise fresh capital for the troubled US bank, which has been ravaged by mortgage-related losses. WaMu’s long-term debt rating was lowered to “BB-” from “BBB-” by S&P.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
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