Business asked to cut power use

(Fin24) - Eskom has requested that business cut its energy usage by 10% to 15%, the energy supplier said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters after meeting in Midrand with top business leaders about the energy crisis in SA, Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga said "the biggest lever we can pull is reducing demand and the discussion this morning with the key customers is how we can collaborate in reducing demand".

Maroga said "voluntary saving targets" had been discussed with the 131 executives representing 38 companies present at the meeting.

He said Eskom had been talking with business about voluntarily reductions for some time.

"In some cases we've had some support where they've voluntarily reduced where they can"

He said: "We've put to them that where it's possible they can help us in reducing voluntarily.

"The quantum we are looking at is between 10% to 15%."

Maroga said he would aspire to a 20% reduction; "but anything between 10% and 15% is something we need to aspire to in terms of reduction.

"That reduction will relieve and reduce the probability of loadshedding."

 

Read more at Fin24

Fujitsu reorganizes semiconductor operations

(Reuters) - Japanese electronics firm Fujitsu Ltd (6702.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it would put its struggling semiconductor operations into a new unit, in a move that could smooth the way for partnerships with other chip makers.

Fujitsu's business building system chips, used in products ranging from digital cameras to supercomputers, has suffered from falling prices and the high cost of keeping up with the latest technology.

The company also said it would transfer development and test production of state-of-the art system chips to its Mie plant in central Japan from a technology centre in Tokyo, at a cost of some 10 billion yen ($94 million).

 

Read more at Reuters

Northern Rock bids deadline set

(Reuters) - Britain set a two-week deadline for a private-sector rescue of Northern Rock, as it confirmed plans to convert its almost 25 billions pounds ($49 billion) of loans to the stricken bank into bonds in a bid to smooth a deal.

The financing package will tie the government to Northern Rock, Britain's biggest casualty of the global credit crunch, for years to come.

But it also increases the prospect of a private-sector takeover, which would avoid a politically damaging nationalization for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who has seen his popularity slump in opinion polls in recent weeks.

Details of the plan sent Northern Rock's battered shares soaring on Monday. By 1105 GMT they were up 40 percent at 90.5 pence, valuing the bank at 380 million pounds ($746 million), still down over 90 percent since the end of May.

The financing package will be available to the three front-runners for a private-sector deal -- Richard Branson's Virgin Group, a rival consortium led by investment firm Olivant, and an in-house solution under new Northern Rock management.

 

Read more at Reuters

L.A. Times editor fired, "significant changes" ahead

(Reuters) - The editor of the Los Angeles Times, James O'Shea, has been fired over a budgetary dispute only 14 months after he took over the post, the newspaper said on Sunday.

O'Shea, a veteran of the Chicago Tribune who was hired by the Times in November 2006, was fired by publisher David Hiller after he refused to carry out some $4 million in cuts, said the newspaper on its Web site, citing an unnamed source. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

In a separate statement late on Sunday, the newspaper said that like all newspaper companies, it was "facing major challenges in charting a course that will be successful for the future".

"In that vein, we will be making several significant organizational changes to put us in the best position to succeed."

It said as a result of these changes, O'Shea would be leaving the newspaper, and did not elaborate further.

O'Shea's firing comes one month after the paper's parent, Tribune Co, completed an $8.2 billion buyout led by Chicago real estate tycoon Sam Zell.

The deal restructured Tribune as an employee-owned company funded largely by debt.

The Times has struggled along with other media companies in an adverse newspaper advertising environment, and has cut staff and editorial resources in recent years.

 

Read more at Reuters