■INTERNET
Yahoo layoffs expected
Yahoo is preparing a new round of layoffs and several hundred employees could be affected, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported late on Tuesday. The newspapers said the layoffs, which would be the first since Carol Bartz took over in January as chief executive of the Internet company, could be announced as early as next week, when Yahoo reports its quarterly earnings. Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo cut 2,400 jobs last year and had 13,600 employees at the end of last year.
■PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi-Aventis to buy BiPar
Sanofi-Aventis SA has agreed to pay up to US$500 million to buy California-based BiPar Sciences to strengthen its research and development in cancer treatments, the Paris-based pharmaceutical company said yesterday. BiPar Sciences, based in Brisbane, California, is focused on research into a new cancer treatment that blocks tumor cells from repairing their own DNA, causing the cancer cells to die, Sanofi-Aventis said in a statement. The final price paid for BiPar Sciences will depend on its achieving targets related to the development of the new treatment, known as BSI-201, Sanofi-Aventis said.
■ENERGY
Petrobras discovers crude
Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras says it has made a new deep-water discovery of light crude in the Santos Basin off the coast of Sao Paulo state. Petroleo Brasileiro SA has yet to say how many barrels of oil the new discovery may hold. The field lies about 340km offshore in pre-salt reservoirs some 5km below sea level. Petrobras said on Tuesday that the discovery was made in partnership with the Spanish oil company Repsol YPF and Britain’s BG Group PLC.
■AVIATION
All Nippon hit by strike
A 24-hour strike by pilots at All Nippon Airways (ANA) forced Japan’s No. 2 carrier to cancel or delay more than 160 domestic flights yesterday, a company spokesman said. “A total of 149 flights have been canceled, with 14 flights delayed,” affecting some 7,300 passengers, the official said, after 610 union members went on strike from 2:45am yesterday. The affected flights, mostly services to provincial cities and remote islands, account for some 18 percent of ANA’s domestic operations. No international flights were affected by the dispute.
■MINING
Rio Tinto production down
Mining giant Rio Tinto yesterday said first-quarter iron ore production fell 15 percent but predicted a recovery in Chinese steel demand in the second half of this year. Rio said reduced market demand and heavy rainfall at its Pilbara operations in Western Australian meant iron ore production dropped 15 percent compared with the same period last year. Chief executive Tom Albanese said Rio remained committed to a proposed deal with Chinalco for the Chinese state-owned firm to take a major equity stake in return for US$19.5 billion.
■RETAIL
Wal-Mart may cut PRC staff
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said yesterday it is restructuring its management in China, which could lead to staff cuts. “We are slashing one layer of mid-level executives off the five-layer executive structure established when we entered China 13 years ago,” said Chen Lu, a Shenzhen-based Wal-Mart spokeswoman.
‘TOO TIRED’: The former mayor’s political party said that he had been questioned for nearly 19 hours, so he declined to be questioned at night, as he felt exhausted Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was arrested early yesterday morning after being questioned by prosecutors over his alleged role in a corruption scandal concerning the Core Pacific City redevelopment project during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The arrest was made after Ko refused to be questioned at night and attempted to leave the prosecutors’ office, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Prosecutors were worried that he would collude with others involved in the case to make false statements if they allowed him to leave, so they issued an order to arrest him, the office said. Ko yesterday sought a court
ECONOMIC RESILIENCE: Only 11.4 percent of Taiwan’s overseas investments last year were in China, and businesses are dispersing their investments elsewhere, Lai said China’s ambition to annex Taiwan is based on a desire to change the rules-based international order, rather than a desire for territorial gains, President William Lai (賴清德) said in an interview. During an appearance on the talk show The View With Catherine Chang, aired last night, Lai said China aimed to achieve hegemony, and that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait was an issue of worldwide concern. During the interview, Lai also discussed his “four-pillar plan” for peace and prosperity, which he first outlined in an article published by the Wall Street Journal on July 4 last year. That
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
Thirty Taiwanese firms, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), yesterday launched a silicon photonics industry alliance, aiming to accelerate the medium’s development and address the energy efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) devices like data centers. As the world is ushering in a new AI era with tremendous demand for computing power and algorithms, energy consumption is emerging as a critical issue, TSMC vice president of integrated interconnect and packaging business C.K. Hsu (徐國晉) told a media briefing in Taipei. To solve this issue, it is essential to introduce silicon photonics and copackaged optics (CPO)
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