10/10/2024

BIZ & FINANCE THURSDAY | OCT 10, 2024 17 Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers NEW YORK: Boeing on Tuesday suspended negotiations with its striking workers as it accused the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) of making unreasonable demands and withdrew its offer. “The union made non-negotiable demands far in excess of what can be accepted if we are to remain competitive as a business,” the US aerospace giant said in an e-mail to employees. “Given that position, further negotiations do not make sense at this point and our offer has been withdrawn.” About 33,000 Boeing workers in the Pacific Northwest have been on strike for nearly a month in a fight focused on higher wages and improved retirement benefits. Workers complain of more than a decade of near-flat wages during a period when inflation has risen. Boeing’s most recent offer included a 30% wage hike. Negotiations, which included the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, resumed on Monday and continued into Tuesday, but no agreement was reached. “Our team bargained in good faith and made new and improved proposals to try to reach a compromise, including increases in take-home pay and retirement,” the company said in the e-mail, adding that “the union did not seriously consider our proposals”. “We remain committed to finding a resolution and will work with the union when they are ready to bargain an agreement that recognises our employees and preserves our company’s future,”the e mail read. Separately, the company announced earlier on Tuesday that it had delivered 33 new aircraft to customers in September in spite of the strike. The aerospace giant delivered 27 Boeing 737 MAX jets assembled in Renton, Washington, which has gone quiet since the strike launched on Sept 13. The 737 MAX planes were cleared for delivery by the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Boeing, which expects fewer deliveries in the coming period due to the strike. Boeing has delivered 291 aircraft through the end of the third quarter, down 22% from the same period in 2023. – AFP OpenAI to expand globally with four new offices PARIS: Californian company OpenAI, which makes generative AI chatbot ChatGPT, said yesterday it was expanding its global reach with four new offices. The firm, which recently got a massive cash injection from investors including Microsoft and Nvidia, said it would open new sites in Paris, Brussels, Singapore and New York. It has already opened an office in London and another in Dublin. The public launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 catapulted the firm into the global spotlight. ChatGPT allows users to generate human-like text documents from simple conversational prompts. OpenAI also makes programmes that produces images and is working on a video generator. The firm raised US$6.6 billion (RM28 billion) in cash and secured a US$4 billion credit line earlier this month, propelling it to a reported US$157 billion valuation. – AFP

DOJ to demand big changes at Google

WASHINGTON: US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday said it would demand that Google make profound changes to how it does business and even consider the possibility of a breakup, after the tech juggernaut was found to be running an illegal monopoly. Determining how to address Google’s wrongs is the next stage of a landmark antitrust trial that saw the company in August judged a monopolist by US district court judge Amit Mehta. An order to break up Google or require deep changes on how it does business marks a profound change by the US government’s competition enforcers that have largely left tech giants alone since failing to break up Microsoft two decades ago. Google dismissed the idea as “radical”. The government told the judge in a court filing that it was considering options that included “structural” changes which could see them asking for a divestment of its smartphone Android operating system or its Chrome browser. The Department of Justice also said it could ask for the prohibition of Google’s default agreements with third parties that sees it pay tens of billions of dollars every year to Apple. The

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including Apple. These deals involve substantial payments to secure Google’s search engine as the default option on browsers, iPhones, and other devices. The judge determined that this arrangement provided Google with unparalleled access to user data, enabling it to develop its search engine into a globally dominant platform. From this position, Google expanded its tech empire to include the Chrome browser, Maps, and the Android smartphone operating system. According to the judgment, Google controlled 90% of the US online search market in 2020, with an even higher 95% share on mobile devices. – AFP

implementing the court’s verdict. A more detailed request will be submitted in November, followed by arguments from both sides in a special hearing scheduled for April. Google, in a blog post, criticised the government’s proposed remedies as “radical” and expressed concern that the DOJ’s requests “go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case”. Regardless of Mehta’s eventual decision, Google is expected to appeal, potentially prolonging the process for years and possibly reaching the US Supreme Court. The trial, which concluded last

Requiring Google to make its search data available to rivals was also on the table, it said. This case, focusing on Google’s search engine dominance, is part of a broader legal offensive against the company’s alleged antitrust violations in the US. Google faces additional challenges from the DOJ regarding its advertising technology and recently lost a jury trial to Fortnite maker Epic Games over its Google Play store practices. The DOJ’s remedy proposals are part of a “high-level framework” outlining how it envisions

The Google logo is seen at the tech juggernaut’s office in New York. – REUTERSPIC

TSMC’s Q3 revenue easily beats market forecast

TAIPEI: TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, reported yesterday third-quarter revenue that easily beat both the market and company’s own forecasts as it reaped the benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) demand. Taiwan Semiconductor Manu facturing Co, whose customers include Apple and Nvidia, has been at the forefront of the march towards AI that has helped it weather the

The company did not provide details in its brief revenue statement. TSMC will report full third quarter earnings on Oct 17, when it will also update its outlook. The company’s Taipei listed stock has risen 72% so far this year, compared with a 26% gain for the broader market. It closed up 1% yesterday ahead of the release of the revenue numbers. – Reuters

TSMC provides monthly revenue data only in Taiwan dollars, but gives quarterly revenue figures and its outlook on its quarterly earnings calls both in US dollars. On its most recent earnings call in July, TSMC forecast third quarter revenue in a range of between US$22.4 billion and US$23.2 billion. For September alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6% year-on-year to T$251.87 billion.

tapering off of pandemic-led demand. Revenue in the July-September period of this year came in at T$759.69 billion (RM101 billion), according to Reuters calculations, compared with an LSEG SmartEstimate of T$750.36 billion drawn from 23 analysts. That represents growth of 36.5% on-year, compared with US$17.3 billion in the year-ago period. It is not a direct comparison as