■FINANCE
SinoPac to end AIG deal
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) has decided to terminate a bancassurance cooperation agreement it inked with American International Group (AIG) in 2007, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Friday. In order to continue servicing its customers, the company said its banking unit, Bank SinoPac (永豐銀行), would sign a new pact with AIG subsidiary Nan Shan Life Insurance Co (南山人壽) tomorrow.
■ELECTRONICS
Ju Teng to raise funds
Ju Teng International Holdings Ltd (巨騰) said on Friday that its Taiwan depositary receipts would be listed and have their trading debut tomorrow. Ju Teng, a maker of notebook-computer casings, aims to raise HK$407 million (US$52.5 million) through the sale of the receipts after pricing the issue at NT$17.30 each. The Hong Kong-based company issued 100 million shares to back the receipts on Friday. Ju Teng operates plants in China’s Jiangsu Province and its products are used in Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc laptops.
■FINANCE
US says credit rating okay
The White House said on Friday it was not worried that the US economy’s credit rating could be downgraded after Standard and Poor’s warned Britain its top-level score was under threat. “No, we are not concerned about a change in our credit rating,” spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Standard and Poor’s said on Thursday that the British economy’s top-level “AAA” credit rating was under threat and lowered its outlook because of soaring public debt, sending financial markets reeling.
■IPR
Cartier sues Apple Inc
Luxury watch maker Cartier International has sued Apple Inc, saying the electronics giant is offering software that infringes on its designs without authorization. The trademark lawsuit was filed on Friday in federal court in Manhattan. It sought a stop to the practice and unspecified damages. Cartier said in the lawsuit that Apple is offering for sale, via its iTunes store, products that use the Cartier trademarks. It said the applications enable customers to display time on the iPhone and iPod Touch. The watch manufacturer said it never authorized Apple to use images that look like its watches on the software.
■INTERNET
Firm eyes Facebook stake
A Russian Internet group has offered to invest US$200 million in Facebook Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported late on Friday. Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said it was unclear whether Facebook had responded to or decided to accept the offer from Digital Sky Technologies. The offer comes as the social-networking company has been talking to a range of venture-capital and private-equity firms about raising more money to help fuel its growth, the report said.
■BRAZIL
Real’s rise worries Brasilia
The sharp rise of the real in recent weeks has sparked worry in the government, which fears it could nip a recovery in export industries, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Friday. “This valuation of the real undermines production sectors, export sectors, agriculture etc. Thus it is a source of preoccupation,” he told reporters in Sao Paulo. The real’s rise is the result of foreign investors shoveling money back into the country as nerves calm over the effects of the crisis, he said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the