■INTERNET
Baidu files US lawsuit
China’s top Internet search engine Baidu (百度) said yesterday it had filed a lawsuit in the US against the firm that manages its US domain registration following a hacking attack last week. The announcement came a week after Google, which trails Baidu in market share in China, said it could abandon its Chinese search engine, and perhaps leave the country entirely, over cyberattacks and censorship. “Today, Baidu filed a lawsuit against its domain name registration service provider Register.com Inc in a US court in New York, seeking damages over the incident of Baidu’s service interruption last week,” the Chinese firm said.
■INSURANCE
AIG in talks to sell Alico
American International Group (AIG) Inc is in talks with MetLife Inc to sell one of its largest insurance units for between US$14 billion and US$15 billion, news reports said on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The two companies have been in discussions for months about a potential deal for AIG’s American Life Insurance Co, known as Alico, the Wall Street Journal reported. The New York Times’ “DealBook” blog also had a similar report. Alico is an international life and health insurance business that operates in more than 50 countries. AIG spokesman Mark Herr said it is the company’s policy not to comment “on rumors and speculation.”
■ELECTRONICS
Samsung, Rambus do deal
Samsung Electronics and Rambus reached a US$900 million settlement on Tuesday to patent claims filed against the South Korean giant by the US memory chip company. Samsung and Rambus said the agreement includes an initial payment by Samsung to Rambus of US$200 million and quarterly payments of US$25 million over the next five years. In addition, Samsung will invest US$200 million in Rambus shares, the companies said in a statement. Samsung and Rambus said the two companies had also agreed to a new licensing agreement for Rambus graphics and mobile memory solutions.
■FLAT PANELS
LG Display back in the black
LG Display Co returned to profit in the fourth quarter of last year amid a jump in sales after a US price-fixing fine dragged it into the red a year earlier. LG Display, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of liquid-crystal-displays used in flat screen televisions and other products, earned 478 billion won (US$421 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, the company said yesterday in a statement and regulatory filing. It posted a loss of 684 billion won a year earlier. Sales during the quarter rose 46 percent to 6.1 trillion won from 4.16 trillion won a year earlier.
■RAILWAYS
Eurostar increases turnover
The Eurostar train service said yesterday its turnover edged up last year, despite the economic downturn and a high-profile breakdown that stranded hundreds of passengers in the Channel Tunnel. The turnover at the railway service, which links Britain, France and Belgium, rose 1.7 percent last year compared with the previous year, the company said in a statement. It hit £675.5 million (US$1.1 billion) last year, Eurostar said. Passenger numbers also rose to 9.2 million people, an increase of 1.2 percent, the statement said. Eurostar said the economic downturn hit the number of business travelers using the rail service in the first half of the year, but this began to pick up in the final six months.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
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