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.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
Taiwanese artificial intelligence (AI) server makers are expected to make major investments in Texas in May after US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office and amid his rising tariff threats, Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA, 台灣電子電機公會) chairman Richard Lee (李詩欽) said yesterday. The association led a delegation of seven AI server manufacturers to Washington, as well as the US states of California, Texas and New Mexico, to discuss land and tax issues, as Taiwanese firms speed up their production plans in the US with many of them seeing Texas as their top option for investment, Lee said. The
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