NEW ZEALAND
Firms offer negative outlook
Local companies are pessimistic about the outlook for the economy, and their own trading prospects, as slowing growth damps demand for their goods and services. A net 59 percent of firms expect the economy would worsen, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research said yesterday, citing its second quarter survey of business opinion. A net 13 percent said their own trading had slowed in the period, and 17 percent expect a deterioration in the three months through September. Meanwhile, a net 10 percent of firms reported trouble finding unskilled workers, down from 37 percent in the first quarter.
RETAILERS
Sainsbury posts higher sales
J Sainsbury PLC reported higher sales and said that food inflation is starting to fall, suggesting that the cost-of-living crisis could start to ease for UK shoppers. Retail revenue gained 9.8 percent on a like-for-like basis at Britain’s second-biggest supermarket in its first quarter. Sainsbury has spent more than £60 million (US$76.22 million) on lowering prices since March, covering more than 120 basic items like toilet paper, bread and milk. “Food inflation is starting to fall and we are fully committed to passing on savings to our customers,” Sainsbury chief executive officer Simon Roberts said in the statement.
AIRLINES
SpiceJet faces disruptions
Passengers on cash-strapped SpiceJet Ltd are experiencing the most flight disruptions in India, the world’s fastest-growing aviation market. With the busy summer travel season arriving, only 61 percent of SpiceJet’s flights departed on time from the country’s four biggest airports — Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — in May, the Indian Directorate-General of Civil Aviation said. That is down from the already trailing figure of nearly 70 percent in April, the agency’s data showed. Air India Ltd slid to fifth from second in the punctuality ranks, with almost twice as many flight delays in May as a month earlier, while Akasa Air was the most on-time, though its performance also slipped.
INTERNET
Yahoo eyes public return
Yahoo Inc plans to return to public markets, chief executive officer Jim Lanzone told the Financial Times in an interview. The Internet media firm still ranks in the global top five in traffic terms and would be aggressive in pursuing merger and acquisition opportunities, Lanzone said. The company, owned by Apollo Global Management Inc, has had to navigate a challenging time for online spending as advertisers try to gauge skittish consumer sentiment. It is “ready financially, the company has a great balance sheet, we’re very profitable,” Lanzone told the Financial Times. Apollo bought Yahoo in 2021.
CANDY
Wrigley settles lawsuit
Wrigley Co, the maker of multicolored fruit-flavored Skittles candies, has settled a lawsuit accusing a seller of cannabis-related merchandise of trademark infringement for marketing products under the “Zkittlez” name. Under a proposed permanent injunction filed on Monday in a Chicago federal court, Terphogz LLC agreed not to use Skittles, Zkittlez or similar terms for cannabis-related sales. It would also stop using slogans such as “Taste the Z Train” and “Taste the Strain Bro,” which Wrigley found too similar to Skittles’ longtime slogan “Taste the Rainbow.” It also agreed to give up the domain name zkittlez.com. Wrigley is a Chicago-based unit of privately held Mars Wrigley Confectionary.
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