Company News in Brief
TSMC eyes JV to run Intel’s foundry operations
TSMC has pitched US chip designers Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom about taking stakes in a joint venture that would operate Intel’s factories, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
Under the proposal, the Taiwanese chip-making giant would run the operations of Intel’s foundry division, which makes chips adapted for the needs of customers, but it would not own more than 50%, the sources said. Qualcomm has also been pitched by TSMC, according to one of the sources and a separate source.
The talks, which are at an early stage, come after US President Donald Trump’s administration requested TSMC, the world’s leading contract chip maker, to assist in turning around the troubled US industrial icon, the sources said on condition of anonymity because the talks are not public.
Intel has previously had manufacturing partnerships with Taiwan’s UMC and Israel’s Tower Semiconductor that could offer a precedent for the two companies to operate together, but it remains unclear how such a partnership would work regarding trade manufacturing secrets.
The Taiwanese chip maker wants potential investors in the joint venture to also be Intel advanced manufacturing customers, according to one of the sources.-REUTERS
X cyberattack targeted vulnerable servers
A cyberattack that brought down Elon Musk’s X targeted servers that were insufficiently protected from malicious traffic, according to cybersecurity analysts. Users of the social media platform faced intermittent outages through Monday, which Musk blamed on a “large, coordinated group” or country waging a “massive cyberattack.”
He didn’t provide any additional specifics to bolster his claim. Jérôme Meyer, security researcher with Nokia Deepfield, a business unit within Nokia Oyj, said X had been targeted in a distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS, which floods a website with traffic and forces it offline. Meyer said he was able to track the attack by reviewing data collected through Nokia’s Deepfield, which is deployed inside telecommunications companies and provides analytics and DDoS protection. The waves of traffic targeted particular “origin servers,” which process and respond to incoming internet requests, he said. Those servers were vulnerable to attack because it appears they weren’t shielded behind technology that blocks DDoS attacks, Meyer said.
They “should not be exposed on the internet,” said Meyer, who added that one of the servers attacked on Monday were still isolated and vulnerable to attack on Tuesday morning.
A representative for X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A pro-Palestinian “hacktivist” group called Dark Storm Team took responsibility for the attack without providing any evidence.-MYBROADBAND
Showmax emerges top streaming site
Showmax is the best-rated streaming app on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in South Africa, beating international players like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+.
This comes after MultiChoice relaunched the streaming service in partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky in February 2024.
This involved a significant rebrand and upgrade to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform. It also added improved content offerings, including titles from studios like NBCUniversal, Universal Pictures, HBO, and Warner Brothers.
Known as Showmax 2.0, the revamped streaming service recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, and MultiChoice notes that it has seen significant growth in paying customers since its relaunch.
“It was a landmark year for Showmax, which grew its paying subscriber base, excluding discontinued services, by 50% year-on-year,” the Showmax and DStv owner said.
It expects this growth to accelerate through its strategic initiatives. It has also proven popular among viewers.
“Showmax streamer was named Best Television/Streaming Network at The National Film and TV Awards South Africa and Entertainment App of the Year at the Stuff App Awards,” said MultiChoice.-MYBROADBAND
Absa CEO warns that SA must de-escalate tiff with Trump
SA’s rapidly deteriorating relationship with the US and the new administration of President Donald Trump US poses a serious risk to the rand, investment and economic growth projections.
That’s the view of Absa’s interim CEO Charles Russon, who says SA should do everything possible to de-escalate the diplomatic standoff with the US, which remains an important trading partner and is still the world’s largest economic and military power. Russon was speaking shortly after Absa reported a 10% increase in headline earnings (R22 billion) for the year to end December.
"We need this to de-escalate, not to escalate. They [the US] are a big trade partner. They are very influential, not only to SA but into the African continent," Russon told News24 in an interview. "As a country, when it feels like some things are starting to go right, we don’t need a challenge on this front. The quicker this is de-escalated, the better, if possible."
"The markets and the investment community don’t like uncertainty. It’s an unhelpful environment," said Russon, adding that some of the actions of the Trump administration had created an enormous amount of uncertainty across the world.
"It does feel like certain countries seem to be a focus. SA, for some reason or another, seems to be one of them," Russon added. "That just is the reality. Even the pull-back on US aid [...] it’s painful."
Since taking office for his second term as US president, Trump has signed an executive order cutting aid to SA over the country’s newly promulgated expropriation legislation that can allow the government to seize property without compensation in certain circumstances. He also signed a separate executive order aimed at what he called the egregious actions of the SA government to disfavoured ethnic minority Afrikaners who are seemingly victims of unjust racial discrimination.-FIN24
TSMC has pitched US chip designers Nvidia, AMD and Broadcom about taking stakes in a joint venture that would operate Intel’s factories, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
Under the proposal, the Taiwanese chip-making giant would run the operations of Intel’s foundry division, which makes chips adapted for the needs of customers, but it would not own more than 50%, the sources said. Qualcomm has also been pitched by TSMC, according to one of the sources and a separate source.
The talks, which are at an early stage, come after US President Donald Trump’s administration requested TSMC, the world’s leading contract chip maker, to assist in turning around the troubled US industrial icon, the sources said on condition of anonymity because the talks are not public.
Intel has previously had manufacturing partnerships with Taiwan’s UMC and Israel’s Tower Semiconductor that could offer a precedent for the two companies to operate together, but it remains unclear how such a partnership would work regarding trade manufacturing secrets.
The Taiwanese chip maker wants potential investors in the joint venture to also be Intel advanced manufacturing customers, according to one of the sources.-REUTERS
X cyberattack targeted vulnerable servers
A cyberattack that brought down Elon Musk’s X targeted servers that were insufficiently protected from malicious traffic, according to cybersecurity analysts. Users of the social media platform faced intermittent outages through Monday, which Musk blamed on a “large, coordinated group” or country waging a “massive cyberattack.”
He didn’t provide any additional specifics to bolster his claim. Jérôme Meyer, security researcher with Nokia Deepfield, a business unit within Nokia Oyj, said X had been targeted in a distributed denial-of-service attack, or DDoS, which floods a website with traffic and forces it offline. Meyer said he was able to track the attack by reviewing data collected through Nokia’s Deepfield, which is deployed inside telecommunications companies and provides analytics and DDoS protection. The waves of traffic targeted particular “origin servers,” which process and respond to incoming internet requests, he said. Those servers were vulnerable to attack because it appears they weren’t shielded behind technology that blocks DDoS attacks, Meyer said.
They “should not be exposed on the internet,” said Meyer, who added that one of the servers attacked on Monday were still isolated and vulnerable to attack on Tuesday morning.
A representative for X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A pro-Palestinian “hacktivist” group called Dark Storm Team took responsibility for the attack without providing any evidence.-MYBROADBAND
Showmax emerges top streaming site
Showmax is the best-rated streaming app on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store in South Africa, beating international players like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney+.
This comes after MultiChoice relaunched the streaming service in partnership with Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Sky in February 2024.
This involved a significant rebrand and upgrade to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform. It also added improved content offerings, including titles from studios like NBCUniversal, Universal Pictures, HBO, and Warner Brothers.
Known as Showmax 2.0, the revamped streaming service recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, and MultiChoice notes that it has seen significant growth in paying customers since its relaunch.
“It was a landmark year for Showmax, which grew its paying subscriber base, excluding discontinued services, by 50% year-on-year,” the Showmax and DStv owner said.
It expects this growth to accelerate through its strategic initiatives. It has also proven popular among viewers.
“Showmax streamer was named Best Television/Streaming Network at The National Film and TV Awards South Africa and Entertainment App of the Year at the Stuff App Awards,” said MultiChoice.-MYBROADBAND
Absa CEO warns that SA must de-escalate tiff with Trump
SA’s rapidly deteriorating relationship with the US and the new administration of President Donald Trump US poses a serious risk to the rand, investment and economic growth projections.
That’s the view of Absa’s interim CEO Charles Russon, who says SA should do everything possible to de-escalate the diplomatic standoff with the US, which remains an important trading partner and is still the world’s largest economic and military power. Russon was speaking shortly after Absa reported a 10% increase in headline earnings (R22 billion) for the year to end December.
"We need this to de-escalate, not to escalate. They [the US] are a big trade partner. They are very influential, not only to SA but into the African continent," Russon told News24 in an interview. "As a country, when it feels like some things are starting to go right, we don’t need a challenge on this front. The quicker this is de-escalated, the better, if possible."
"The markets and the investment community don’t like uncertainty. It’s an unhelpful environment," said Russon, adding that some of the actions of the Trump administration had created an enormous amount of uncertainty across the world.
"It does feel like certain countries seem to be a focus. SA, for some reason or another, seems to be one of them," Russon added. "That just is the reality. Even the pull-back on US aid [...] it’s painful."
Since taking office for his second term as US president, Trump has signed an executive order cutting aid to SA over the country’s newly promulgated expropriation legislation that can allow the government to seize property without compensation in certain circumstances. He also signed a separate executive order aimed at what he called the egregious actions of the SA government to disfavoured ethnic minority Afrikaners who are seemingly victims of unjust racial discrimination.-FIN24
