■ TELECOMS
Sony Ericsson slips into red
Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson yesterday reported a third-quarter net loss of 25 million euros (US$33.7 million), down from a net gain of 267 million euros a year earlier. The Japanese-Swedish group also saw its operating income slump to 33 million euros from 393 million in the same period last year. “As expected the third quarter has continued to be challenging for Sony Ericsson,” company chief executive Dick Komiyama said in the earnings statement. Sony Ericsson booked sales of 2.8 billion euros in the third quarter, a 10 percent drop from the 3.1 billion euros it posted a year earlier. The company also saw the number of phones sold during the quarter slip to 25.7 million from 25.9 million a year earlier, but the figure was a slight improvement from second quarter’s 24.4 million.
■ AVIATION
Jet drops lay-off plans
India’s biggest private airline, Jet Airways, said it had dropped plans to sack hundreds of staff following angry protests. Jet chairman Naresh Goyal also apologized to the 800 people laid off earlier in the week as part of a bigger cost-cutting plan involving the shedding of 1,900 jobs. “I could not sleep at night. I was mentally disturbed when I saw tears in their eyes. I apologize for all the agony you went through,” Goyal said at a press conference in Mumbai late on Thursday. Most of the employees laid off were newly hired flight attendants and ground crew, mostly in their early 20s.
■ BANKING
Bank chief gives up bonus
Deutsche Bank head Josef Ackermann will forgo his annual bonus of several million euros to show solidarity with staff in this time of financial crisis, he told a Sunday newspaper, Bild am Sonntag, in comments to appear in its next edition. The Swiss national intended to express a “personal sign of solidarity,” which would see him do without “a few million” euros in pay. Three other senior board members at Germany’s biggest bank would follow his example, the bank said. Last year, they received a combined total of 33.2 million euros (US$44.7 million) in pay, of which 4.3 million euros were performance bonuses.
■ FINANCE
CIC to up Blackstone stake
China Investment Corp (CIC, 中國投資公司), the government’s sovereign wealth fund, may raise its stake in US investment group Blackstone LP after the two agreed to boost the Chinese company’s ownership limit. CIC had paid US$3 billion for a stake in Blackstone’s initial public offering in June last year, but has seen the value of that investment sink in the bear market, to the consternation of many in China. According to a regulatory filing, a revised agreement reached on Thursday between Blackstone and CIC unit Beijing Wonderful Investments Ltd (北京萬德福投資公司) has raised the limit on the Chinese company’s stake to 12.5 percent from 9.99 percent.
■ STEEL
Group to buy mining stake
A consortium of Japanese and South Korean steelmakers will take a US$4 billion stake in a Brazilian miner to secure supplies of iron ore, the Nikkei Shimbun reported yesterday. Five Japanese steelmakers, including Nippon Steel and JFE Steel, as well as South Korea’s Posco — will buy a roughly 40 percent stake in Nacional Minerios SA, the report said, citing unnamed company sources. The miner, a unit of Companhia Siderurgica Nacional, produces about 20 million tonnes of iron ore a year.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors
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