ENTERTAINMENT
‘Mario Bros’ holds No. 1
The Super Mario Bros. Movie easily held its first-place position on North American movie screens this weekend, while its accumulated global total pushed past the US$1 billion mark, analysts said on Sunday. The video game-based film earned an estimated US$40 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period in the US and Canada for a domestic total so far of US$490 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported. With overseas earnings at US$532 million, its accumulated global total has reached US$1.02 billion. That makes The Super Mario Bros. Movie — a joint project of Universal Pictures, Nintendo Co and Illumination — the year’s first film to pass the billion-dollar mark and only the 10th animation ever to do so, The Hollywood Reporter said.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Astellas to buy Iveric
Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma Inc has agreed to acquire Iveric Bio Inc, which develops drugs to treat age-related blindness, for about US$5.9 billion. The deal, which is to be funded by cash and debt, is for 100 percent of Iveric Bio for US$40 per share, a premium of 75 percent to the drugmaker’s 30-day volume-weighted average price through the end of March 31, the companies said in a statement yesterday. Iveric Bio shares closed at US$32.89 on Friday. The acquisition gives Astellas a key product to offer therapies for blindness and eye conditions, a growth area identified by the company as it seeks to make up for declining sales of other products. Iveric Bio is developing a drug to treat geographic atrophy, a condition that leads to the loss of retinal tissue in the eye.
FRANCE
Fitch cuts credit rating
The nation’s credit rating was cut by Fitch Ratings in another blow to politically embattled President Emmanuel Macron as he tries to bolster the country’s public finances with unpopular overhauls. Fitch reduced France’s credit rating to “AA-” from “AA,” with a stable outlook, bringing the eurozone’s second-largest economy to the same notch as countries including Ireland and the Czech Republic. France’s projected budget deficits for this year and next year “are well above” the median for countries with AA ratings, Fitch said in a note. It is only the second time France has been downgraded since Macron took office in 2017 and the first time by one of the three major rating firms. In 2020, DBRS Morningstar cut France to “AA (high)” from the top-notch “AAA.”
EDUCATION
Byju’s offices raided
Byju’s, India’s most valuable start-up, sought to reassure employees and partners after a weekend raid of the education company’s offices by the agency that investigates money laundering in the country. Indian Directorate of Enforcement officials searched the Bengaluru-based start-up’s offices and seized documents and digital data, the agency wrote in a post on Twitter. The probe is occurring under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, it said. The investigations come as the company, valued at US$22 billion, is in talks with investors to raise funds to address a liquidity crunch. The firm had also been trying to appease creditors seeking restructuring of a US$1.2 billion term loan after the once high-flying start-up missed deadlines to file financial accounts for the year to March 31 last year. The company, which claims to have 150 million registered students, offers education programs through an app service.
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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