Winbond signs Ericsson deal
Ericsson Technology Licensing AB yesterday signed a Bluetooth license agreement with Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), a computer memory-chip maker based in Hsinchu, Ericsson said in a statement.
The license agreement, which covers the Ericsson Core Bluetooth Radios K-D1 and K-E1, enables Winbond to design and manufacture complete Bluetooth solutions together with a proprietary baseband, Sweden's Ericsson said in a statement.
Ericsson, the world's largest maker of wireless networks, hopes the pact will allow Winbond to "penetrate the Taiwanese market with Bluetooth solutions," Maria Khorsand, president of Ecrission Technology Licensing, said in the statement.
Taishin Financial to sell bonds
Taishin Financial Holdings Co (台新金控), the owner of the nation's second-largest credit-card issuer, plans to sell NT$10 billion (US$294 million) of subordinated bonds to local investors to boost its capital adequacy ratio.
"The sale is expected to be done by the end of the year," said Carol Lai (賴昭吟), chief financial officer at Taipei-based Taishin Financial.
Subordinated bonds offer investors less protection against a possible default than regular debt.
Taishin Financial last month said it plans to sell as much as US$300 million of bonds convertible into stock. The proceeds will help redeem 27 million preferred shares held by the group's banking unit when Taishin formed a holding company last year.
Taishin International Bank (台新銀行), which contributes 90 percent of group profit, will write off about NT$1.8 billion of bad loans in the fourth quarter and provision for NT$1.5 billion more, Lai said.
China reports FDI increase
China said yesterday that foreign direct investment totaled US$43.6 billion in the first 10 months of the year, an increase of 5.8 percent from the same period last year.
Although China's Ministry of Commerce provided no data for October alone, it appears there was very little investment coming into China during the month.
In the first nine months of the year, foreign direct investment to China had risen by almost 12 percent.
In comparison, Taiwan received US$2.186 billion worth of foreign direct investment during the first nine months of the year, declining 3.8 percent from a year earlier, according to statistics provided by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
To lure back foreign investors, Taiwan hosted an international business conference last month.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) said after the conclusion of the four-day meeting that Taiwan had attracted 186 foreign investment projects valued at NT$138.38 billion at that time, exceeding the government's targeted NT$100 billion.
Acer forecasts profit to grow
Acer Inc confirmed its full-year profit forecast and said it expects fourth-quarter sales to rise as it sells more laptops and Tablet PCs, Les Echos quoted president Wang Chen-tang (王振堂) as saying.
Acer expects a full-year operating profit of US$59 million.
Nine-month sales were more than US$3 billion, or 40 percent more than the year-earlier period. Operating profit was US$32 million, Wang told Les Echos.
Acer returned to the US retail market this year after a four-year absence, having pulled out in 1999 to focus on making computers sold under other companies' brand names.
NT dollar strengthens
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday moved higher against its US counterpart, rising NT$0.020 to close at NT$34.009 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$527 million.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”