■ELECTRONICS
NEC, Renesas delay deal
NEC Electronics Corp and Renesas Technology Corp, Japan’s second-largest chip maker, delayed signing a merger to the end of next month, citing the need for more time to evaluate the assets. “The due diligence process is taking longer than we expected, but we are confident about reaching an agreement next month,” Shinichi Kaede, a spokesman at NEC Electronics, said by phone yesterday. The two companies, which had originally planned to agree on terms of the transaction by the end of this month, maintained their target date of April next year to complete the merger, he said. The combined company will achieve an operating-profit margin of at least 5 percent, NEC Electronics president Junshi Yamaguchi said last month.
■AVIATION
EADS profit jumps in Q2
European aerospace giant EADS yesterday reported a 76 percent jump in net profit for the second quarter to 208 million euros (US$297 million) despite costs linked to delays of its A400M plane. EADS, the parent company of Airbus, said its second-quarter operating profit was up 69 percent to 656 million euros, but for the first half of the year was down 23 percent at 888 million euros. It said the drop reflected a charge of 191 million euros taken to cover delays on the A400M military transport project. Total provisions for the aircraft add up to 2.3 billion euros.
■FINANCE
Bank to scale back network
Bank of America Corp is planning to reduce its 6,100-branch network by about 10 percent, the Wall Street Journal cited bank chief executive Kenneth Lewis as telling investors. The plans were discussed at a meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, last Thursday, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter. The Journal’s sources added that Liam McGee, president of Bank of America’s consumer and small-business bank, also said branch closures were planned, but did not specify how many locations could be closed.
■INTERNET
Google sells AOL stake
Time Warner has bought back Google’s 5 percent stake in struggling Internet company AOL for US$283 million. The price, paid on July 8, is close to what Google estimated its stake at earlier this year. The details emerged in a regulatory filing by AOL on Monday. The deal sets the stage for AOL’s impending spin-off from parent Time Warner. Google bought the stake for US$1 billion in 2006, but in January estimated the investment had sunk by more than 70 percent to US$274 million — giving AOL a market value of about US$5.5 billion. Time Warner agreed to buy back the stake earlier this year. The price at which New York-based Time Warner bought back the stake values AOL slightly higher, at about US$5.66 billion.
■TELECOMS
Verizon to cut 8,000 jobs
Verizon Communications, the second-largest US phone company, said on Monday it would slash another 8,000 jobs in the second half of this year amid declining earnings. Profits fell 21 percent to US$1.48 billion, or US$0.52 per share, from US$0.66 per share a year earlier, Verizon said. Revenue rose 11 percent to US$26.9 billion on increased sales of high-speed fiber-optic internet service and the company’s acquisition of rival Alltel Corp in January. Verizon was hurt by rising pension costs and cuts in landline phone service, especially by businesses.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
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