■ LEISURE
Hasbro to buy Cranium
The maker of Monopoly is adding to its empire of board games. Hasbro Inc, the world's second-largest toy company, has agreed to buy privately held game maker Cranium Inc. for about US$77.5 million, the companies said on Friday. Pawtucket-based Hasbro owns the board game brands Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, which make perennially popular games including Scrabble, Clue and Battleship as well as Monopoly. Cranium, based in Seattle, is best known for its Cranium board game, which requires players to hum, draw or sculpt their way to the top.
■ TRANSPORTATION
China's airports get lift
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to lend and invest a total of US$214 million in China's airports, its first foray into the sector, the Manila-based financial institution announced yesterday. The move is part of a project to develop the economy in China's western region and mobilize private sector funding for its airports so that local governments can channel funding into social welfare programs, the ADB said. The ADB will make a US$50 million equity investment in HNA Airport Holding Group Co Ltd, a private company primarily involved in the privatization of China's airports. The ADB will also extend a loan of US$164 million to the project, with risk participation from international banks.
■ RETAIL
Shops to open at ground zero
The owner of the World Trade Center site is teaming up with an Australian retailer to develop upscale stores and restaurants in the new office towers being built at the ground zero site of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved the US$1.45 billion deal on Friday with The Westfield Group, one of the world's largest mall operators. The Sydney, Australia-based retailer will contribute US$625 million and the Port Authority $825 million to build high-end stores and restaurants, half of them facing city streets that are being resurrected at the former superblock complex.
■ SUBPRIME CRISIS
Fed to auction more funds
The Federal Reserve announced on Friday that it is increasing the amount of money available to US banks through the new auction process it created to ease the severe credit squeeze. The Fed again pledged to continue the auctions "for as long as necessary." The Fed said that it will increase the amount offered at each of the next two auctions from US$20 billion to US$30 billion, a 50 percent jump. Those two auctions will be Jan. 14 and Jan. 28. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues decided to try the auction approach because banks had feared accepting direct injections would carry a stigma that would raise doubts among investors about the soundness of institutions using the discount window.
■ ENERGY
India IPO may be largest yet
India's Reliance Power Ltd plans to open its initial public offering of shares next week in what could be the country's largest listing yet, the company said. Reliance Power is a subsidiary of Reliance Energy Ltd and a part of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, a business conglomerate with interests in telecommunications, finance and entertainment. The planned sale of 260 million shares is expected to raise nearly US$3 billion, with shares offered in a price band of 405 rupees (US$10.30) to 450 rupees, company chairman Anil Ambani said on Friday. The IPO opens from Jan. 15 through Jan. 18.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) yesterday said that Intel Corp would find itself in the same predicament as it did four years ago if its board does not come up with a core business strategy. Chang made the remarks in response to reporters’ questions about the ailing US chipmaker, once an archrival of TSMC, during a news conference in Taipei for the launch of the second volume of his autobiography. Intel unexpectedly announced the immediate retirement of former chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger last week, ending his nearly four-year tenure and ending his attempts to revive the
WORLD DOMINATION: TSMC’s lead over second-placed Samsung has grown as the latter faces increased Chinese competition and the end of clients’ product life cycles Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the No. 1 title in the global pure-play wafer foundry business in the third quarter of this year, seeing its market share growing to 64.9 percent to leave South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, the No. 2 supplier, further behind, Taipei-based TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report. TSMC posted US$23.53 billion in sales in the July-September period, up 13.0 percent from a quarter earlier, which boosted its market share to 64.9 percent, up from 62.3 percent in the second quarter, the report issued on Monday last week showed. TSMC benefited from the debut of flagship
A former ASML Holding NV employee is facing a lawsuit in the Netherlands over suspected theft of trade secrets, Dutch public broadcaster NOS said, in the latest breach of the maker of advanced chip-manufacturing equipment. The 43-year-old Russian engineer, who is suspected of stealing documents such as microchip manuals from ASML, is expected to appear at a court in Rotterdam today, NOS reported on Friday. He is accused of multiple violations of the sanctions legislation and has been given a 20-year entry ban by the Dutch government, the report said. The Dutch company makes machines needed to produce high-end chips that power
As South Korea descends into political chaos, its equity market risks falling further behind major tech rival Taiwan, which is basking in the glory of a global artificial intelligence (AI) boom. A near-30 percent surge in Taiwan’s stock benchmark this year, set to be the best since 2009, has already helped spur a historic divergence between Asia’s two tech-dominated markets. The nation’s market capitalization now exceeds South Korea’s by about US$950 billion as the world’s AI frontrunners from Nvidia Corp and Microsoft Corp to OpenAI all increasingly turn to Taiwanese firms for supply. Looking ahead to next year, while both export-oriented economies
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