Leading Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo Inc may scale back a planned investment in a Taiwanese joint venture after suffering losses on other investments overseas, a report said yesterday.
DoCoMo was expected to take a 20 percent stake in the company to be formed from the merger of Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (
As the merger would reduce DoCoMo's stake in the combined company to 5 percent from the 21.4 percent which it already owns in KG, the Japanese firm was forecast to purchase a 23 percent stake in the new venture, according to the newspaper.
Far EasTone, Taiwan's third-largest mobile phone service provider, is partially held by US telecoms giant AT&T.
"However, people close to the deal say DoCoMo wanted to delay the decision on whether to increase its stake by at least a year," the daily said, adding such a delay could force AT&T to sell its shares to someone else.
DoCoMo was under increased pressure from investors to stop earmarking funds for foreign ventures after suffering a massive writedown in the value of such investments, according to the London-based newspaper.
A DoCoMo spokesman declined to comment on the report, but said the mobile phone giant had no plans for additional investment in Taiwan.
"It is expected that our share in the new entity would be smaller [than the 21.4 percent share in KG Telecom]," he said.
The planned merger would create the nation's second-biggest mobile phone operator, the Finan-cial Times said.
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
RSS