OCTOBER 23RD, 2015 – OCTOBER 30TH, 2015
TURKS & CAICOS SUN
Page 45
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY WORLD NEWS
Western Digital to buy SanDisk in $19 billion deal
ScanDisk Hard-disk drive maker Western Digital Corp agreed to buy SanDisk Corp in a $19 billion deal that will greatly increase its ability to make flash memory storage chips used in smartphones and tablets. Shares of SanDisk hit a high of $78.50 on Wednesday, but were well below the offer price of $86.50 in cash and stock, a fact that analysts attributed to the deal’s complexity. Western Digital said the value of the transaction hinges on the closing of an investment in the company by Unisplendour Corp Ltd, a unit of China’s state-backed Tsinghai Holdings Co Ltd. Unisplendour said in September it would buy 15 percent of Western Digital for $3.78 billion a deal that is likely to face regulatory scrutiny amid national security concerns. Western Digital’s move to buy SanDisk is the latest in a flurry of deals in the U.S. semiconductor industry, which has been hit by a supply glut and cheaper products from China that have driven down memory chip prices. Earlier, semiconductor equipment maker Lam Research agreed to buy rival KLA-Tencor Corp in a deal valued at about $10.6 billion. Research firm Gartner said in October that worldwide semiconductor sales are expected to fall for the first time in three years in 2015, due partly to increasingly saturated market for smartphones. Western Digital, a major player in the traditional storage industry, needs access to SanDisk’s NAND technology to better compete in the market for solid-state drives used in cloud computing, data centers, smartphones and laptops. Western Digital CEO Steve Milligan said it had the support of SanDisk partner Toshiba Corp , which has the right to block any deal. SanDisk has an intellectual property sharing joint venture with the Japanese company and uses its foundries to make chips. Toshiba spokeswoman Midori Hara said in an email that the deal would not have a negative impact on that joint venture.
Sony settles hacking lawsuit, to pay up to $8 million Sony Pictures Entertainment has reached a settlement with current and former employees, agreeing to pay up to $8 million to reimburse them for identity-theft losses, preventative measures and legal fees related to the hack of its computers last year. The settlement was filed with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles late Monday and still needs to be approved by a judge. The agreement calls for up to $10,000 a person, capped at $2.5 million, to reimburse workers for identity theft losses, up to $1,000 each to cover the cost of credit-fraud protection services, capped at $2 million, and up to $3.5 million in legal fees.
Hackers calling themselves Guardians of Peace broke into Sony Pictures computers and last November released thousands of emails, documents, social security numbers and other personal information in an attempt to derail the release of the North Korean-focused comedy “The Interview.” The U.S. government blamed North Korea for the attack. In a memo to staff Tuesday, Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton called the agreement “an important, positive step forward in putting the cyber-attack firmly behind us.” Sony Corp. CEO Kazuo
Hirai told a technology conference on Tuesday that following the hack, the movie studio has “come out more resilient, more strong and they have a very good management team in place now.” Hirai said there wasn’t much of a business impact from the hack, although he said employee morale was hurt for a short time. Former Sony Pictures cochair Amy Pascal left her position after a trove of embarrassing emails was leaked, including racially insensitive remarks about President Barack Obama’s purported taste in movies. She continues to run a production venture at Sony that will handle major blockbuster franchises such as the “Spider-Man” series.
Toyota to recall 6.5 million cars to fix power window switch Toyota Motor Corp said Toyota said modules on Wednesday it would recall in the power window master 6.5 million vehicles globally to switch may have been fix a defect in the power window lubricated inconsistently switch in models including the during the manufacturing Yaris/Vitz subcompact, Corolla, process. Debris caused by wear Camry and others. from the electrical contact Of the total, about 2.7 points can accumulate and million are in North America, 1.2 cause a short circuit. That in million in Europe, and 600,000 turn could cause the switch in Japan, the automaker said. assembly to overheat and melt, It said it was not aware of any and potentially lead to a fire, it crashes caused by the glitch. said.
Among other models subject to the recall are the Matrix, RAV4, Highlander, Tundra, Sequoia and Scion xB. The vehicles were produced between January 2005 and December 2010, Toyota said. Toyota also issued a separate recall in Japan of about 140,000 Crown and Crown Majesta models for a glitch that could cause the hood to open inadvertently.
Irish court orders investigation of Facebook data transfers to U.S
thousands of U.S. and European companies mired in legal uncertainty over the transfer of personal data from Europe to the United States. That includes payroll and human resources information as well as data used for online advertising, which is of particular importance to tech firms. Under EU data A 3D-printed Facebook logo is seen in front of the logo of the European Union in this protection law, companies cannot picture illustration made in Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 15, 2015. transfer EU citizens’ personal Ireland’s High Court on information directly from big data to countries outside the Tuesday ordered an investigation tech firms such as Facebook and bloc deemed to have insufficient into Facebook’s transfer of Google. privacy safeguards. European Union users’ data to The initial challenge was A lawyer for Facebook the United States to make sure made in Ireland because Facebook had asked to voice the company’s personal privacy was properly has its European headquarters opinion in the Irish case, but protected from U.S. government in Dublin and is regulated withdrew that request when surveillance. by the Irish Data Protection the judge said any ruling would The court told the Irish Commissioner. Tuesday’s ruling not go into detail as to how the Data Protection Commissioner overturns the commissioner’s regulator should conduct its to launch a probe following a initial refusal to investigate on investigation. landmark ruling by the European the grounds that it did not have Schrems, who liveCourt of Justice (ECJ) two weeks jurisdiction over Safe Harbour. tweeted the ruling from the Irish ago which struck down the Safe The data commissioner’s court room, told journalists he Harbour agreement that had office said in a statement it would expected the EU would have allowed the free transfer of data now “proceed to investigate the difficulty reaching consensus between the European Union and substance of the complaint with on a new framework due to the United States. all due diligence.” disagreements between countries Both the ECJ decision Facebook said in a who want different levels of and Tuesday’s ruling were the statement it had never been part safeguards. result of a challenge by Austrian of a programme to give the U.S. “In the end you will have law student Max Schrems, government direct access to its to have a solution because it’s not lodged after revelations in 2013 servers and said it would respond possible that within a European of the U.S. government’s Prism to enquiries by the Irish Data market you have different programme, which allowed Protection Commissioner. approaches,” he said. authorities to harvest private The ECJ ruling has