Taiwan-based Trend Micro (
The Taiwan software developer -- perhaps best known for its anti-virus software, PC-Cillin -- said net income increased 161 percent during the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, with its strongest sales growth in Europe and the US.
"We experienced another record first half," said Steve Chang, chairman and founder of Trend Micro, attributing the strong sales growth to his company's Internet related products and strong software development teams.
The company reported sales of ?9.6 billion (US$88 million) for the first half of the year through June, a rise of 70.5 percent over the same time last year, with net income reaching ?2.47 billion (US$23 million), a 161 percent increase.
The company also noted that Japan remained its top market overall, a fact which led the company to list its shares on the TSE according to Stuart Young, software industry analyst at Primasia.
"The company holds 70 percent of the Japanese market for anti-virus software," said Young, "and they can make a lot more money by listing in Tokyo rather than Taiwan."
He said since Trend Micro is such a well-known name in Japan, investors there would be better able to estimate the value of the company based on the size of its market share "so that should help Trend get a decent price on the listing."
Trend Micro successfully applied to transfer its shares from the JASDAQ over-the-counter stock exchange to the TSE's main board. Listing on the main board makes Trend more attractive to institutional investors and should pump up its share price, Young said.
Trend's Chang indicated that increasing share price is a primary reason for listing on the TSE, and he hopes the company's employees will benefit from a rise in the stock's price.
Software companies generally give their employees stock as a part of their benefit package, Young said. In the case of many talented software developers, stock "is the only way to keep them."
Taiwan's software industry generated revenue of NT$103.4 billion in 1999, up from the previous year's NT$80.2 billion, according to the Institute for Information Industry (III,
Trend Micro also helps act as a World Wide Web SWAT team when it comes to fighting computer viruses. The company, which has offices around Asia including Manila, Taipei and Tokyo, turns these locations into the equivalent of anti-virus crime labs when major viruses threaten the Web.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day