Corporate raider Carl Icahn said Monday his investment firm had entered into a confidentiality agreement with Dell, which is facing a battle over its plans to take the computer maker private.

The agreement will allow Icahn access to detailed financial information which is not publicly available.

A brief statement issued by Icahn said the agreement was signed Sunday.

"Icahn Enterprises looks forward to commencing its review of Dell's confidential information," the statement said.

Icahn has taken a stake in Dell and is opposing the buyout plan led by founder Michael Dell, claiming it undervalues the company, according to documents released by Dell.

Icahn on Friday told AFP that he is doing what he has always done: pressing companies and chief executives to perform better and reward investors better.

"What we do by shaking up a large number of companies that need shaking up is very salutary for our economy," Icahn said in an exclusive telephone interview.

"Many of our companies, but with many exceptions, are run by CEOs that should not be running them," Icahn said. "And as a result, these corporations are not as productive as they should be."

Some reports indicate other offers could be made for Dell which are higher than the $24.4 billion buyout. Icahn's letter last week suggested a special dividend paid to shareholders would be a better plan.

Taiwan's Foxconn to recruit 5,000 technicians at home
Taipei (AFP) March 11, 2013 –

Taiwan's tech giant Foxconn will hire 5,000 technicians locally this year, many of them to work on factory robots to build its gadgets, officials said Monday, in a sign the firm is refocusing operations to its home island.

The announcement — one of the group's largest talent recruitment drives in Taiwan in recent years — comes as the conglomerate is slowing new hiring at its sprawling factories in China.

Foxconn said the move was due to increasing automation of manufacturing and assembly lines in China, where rising labour costs have squeezed profit margins.

Some of the new employees are to work at a software complex in Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan, spokeswoman Laura Liu said, while others will staff a robot research unit in the centre of the island, and a development unit at the company's headquarters outside Taipei.

Chairman Terry Gou told media that Foxconn — the world's largest maker of computer components, which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia — plans to use one million robots to do "simple" manufacturing work by 2014.

Foxconn already has 10,000 robots for painting, welding and other assembly tasks.

The company employs the vast majority of its workers in China, where it employs more than one million people, roughly half of them based in its main facility in Shenzhen, which borders Hong Kong.

Foxconn has come under the spotlight in recent years over worker suicides, labour unrest and the use of underage interns at its Chinese plants.

It has taken steps such as raising salaries, improving working conditions and enforcing age restrictions to address concerns raised by an independent audit of conditions mandated by Apple.