■HONG KONG
Disneyland to expand
Lawmakers in the special administrative region have approved a government plan to expand the city’s Disneyland at a cost of about US$465 million. The approval late on Friday came after the Walt Disney Co and the Hong Kong government agreed to expand their joint venture, Hong Kong Disneyland, two weeks ago after two years of negotiation. The proposed expansion will add three more theme areas and 30 more new attractions, enlarging the park by nearly a quarter over the next five years.
■CHINA
Firm gets go-ahead for IPO
A construction company has received approval for the biggest initial public stock offering this year and hopes to raise 42.6 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion), a state newspaper reported yesterday. China State Construction Engineering Corp (中國建築工程), the country’s biggest builder of housing, plans to issue 12 billion shares, the China Securities Journal reported. The company’s showcase projects include the “Water Cube” swimming center for the Beijing Olympics, the futuristic state TV headquarters and the Shanghai World Financial Center.
■INTERNET
Rosetta Stone sues Google
Rosetta Stone, a language-learning software producer, on Friday filed a federal lawsuit against Google for infringing its trademark through Google’s AdWords online advertising program. Rosetta Stone charges that Google is wrongly allowing its name and other trademarks to serve as keywords that other businesses can use to target paid advertisements to people on the Internet. Google said on Friday that its policy is to allow trademarks to be used to target AdWords advertising.
■AUTOMOBILES
Porsche board calls meeting
The German luxury sports car maker Porsche has scheduled an extraordinary meeting of its supervisory board on July 23 to discuss offers by Qatar and Volkswagen, sources said on Friday. A Porsche spokesman confirmed the meeting, while a source close to the supervisory board said the Qatar and VW offers would be discussed. Invitations were extended by Wolfgang Porsche, head of the supervisory board, the spokesman said.
■AVIATION
Continental to join alliance
The US government on Friday approved Continental Airlines’ bid to join the Star Alliance and granted partial antitrust immunity to a new joint venture within the group. The Transportation Department announced final approval of the requests made by Star members and Continental, confirming an April 7 finding that the proposed agreements would not hurt competition. Continental, the fourth-largest US airline and currently a member of the SkyTeam Alliance, will join Star, a grouping of more than 20 US and international airlines.
■PUBLISHING
Gannett announces cuts
The latest wrenching cutbacks at Gannett Co fell last week, as hundreds of employees at the largest US newspaper publisher received notices of layoffs. The company informed its newspapers last week that roughly 1,400 positions would be cut at Gannett’s US community publishing division, a unit that does not include its flagship USA Today newspaper. It was the latest major cutback for Gannett amid drastic revenue declines across the newspaper industry.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
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