■FRANCE
Angry workers hold 3M boss
Angry workers were yesterday holding the boss of their factory hostage to try to make their US employers improve their redundancy package, police and union officials said. The detention came less than two weeks after workers held the boss of Sony France hostage overnight before freeing him after he agreed to reopen talks on their pay-off when the factory closed. The latest case was in the central town of Pithiviers, where employees of the US industrial conglomerate 3M detained their boss late on Tuesday to force him to renegotiate pay-offs and compensations for workers moved to other plants. “This action [hostage-taking] is our only currency. But there is no aggression,” union representative Jean-Francois Caparros said. “Talks were held overnight but they led nowhere.”
■FOOTWEAR
Nike stops orders
Sportswear producer Nike said yesterday it would stop orders with three footwear factories in China and one in Vietnam as the global downturn forces the company to trim output. It will also terminate shipments from a number of apparel contract plants, Nike said in an e-mailed statement. The locations of the apparel factories were not revealed. “This is part of a long-term consolidation of our supply chain that we began in mid-2007,” said Erin Dobson, the company’s spokeswoman in Beaverton, Oregon. “We are not immune to the current global economic situation and because of this we have accelerated our process.”
■FAST FOOD
Yum buys Chinese hot pot
US fast food giant Yum Brands Inc will pay more than US$60 million for a stake of up to 20 percent in Chinese hot pot chain Little Sheep, the Chinese company said yesterday. Yum Brands Inc, the parent of fast food chain KFC, will buy 143 million shares, or 13.9 percent, of Little Sheep at HK$2.4 (US$0.31) per share via a subsidiary, the Chinese firm said in a statement filed with the Hong Kong bourse. It has also agreed to acquire another 62 million shares of the Chinese restaurant at the same price after the first transaction is completed, bringing the total investment to US$63.7 million, the statement said.
■ENTERTAINMENT
Blockbuster downloads
Blockbuster Inc plans to let TiVo Inc subscribers download movies to their home TVs from its online movie library, in the latest deal aimed at broadening the brand to computers and other gadgets. Under the deal announced yesterday, most TiVo users with high-speed Internet service will be able to view movies offered by Blockbuster’s On Demand system. Blockbuster joins rival Netflix and Amazon.com, which also provide online video straight to TiVo users’ TVs. The agreement also calls for Blockbuster’s brick-and-mortar stores and online shop to sell TiVo’s digital video recorders, potentially exposing both companies’ customers to the other’s services.
■FINANCE
Mitsubishi creates brokerage
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc plans to take a 60 percent stake in a new brokerage that it will create with US investment bank Morgan Stanley, local media reported yesterday. The two firms have already agreed to merge their brokerage units next spring, with Mitsubishi UFJ taking control of the joint entity, the Nikkei financial daily said. Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan’s biggest banking group, said in a statement that no decisions had been made regarding potential business ventures with Morgan Stanley.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
SECURITY: The purpose for giving Hong Kong and Macau residents more lenient paths to permanent residency no longer applies due to China’s policies, a source said The government is considering removing an optional path to citizenship for residents from Hong Kong and Macau, and lengthening the terms for permanent residence eligibility, a source said yesterday. In a bid to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from infiltrating Taiwan through immigration from Hong Kong and Macau, the government could amend immigration laws for residents of the territories who currently receive preferential treatment, an official familiar with the matter speaking on condition of anonymity said. The move was part of “national security-related legislative reform,” they added. Under the amendments, arrivals from the Chinese territories would have to reside in Taiwan for
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
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