■ Dell, HP shun Windows
Dell Inc, the world's largest personal computer maker, won't sell the stripped-down version of Microsoft Corp's Windows program, the Wall Street Journal said, citing Dell spokesman Venancio Figueroa. In addition, Hewlett-Packard Co said the version of Windows with Microsoft's Media Player audio and video software removed, can be acquired in Europe when buying one of its computers, though it pointed out that "there will be very little incentive to buy," the newspaper said, citing Hewlett-Packard's vice president for Europe, Ingo Juraske. The European Commission, the EU's Brussels-based regulatory arm, ordered Microsoft to sell a version of Windows without a media player, license some information to rivals and pay a record fine of US$640 million.
■ Hu to exit ProMOS board
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技), a leading maker of computer memory chips, said yesterday that the company's former chairman Hu Hung-chiu (胡洪九) would make an exit from the company's board in an upcoming management shake-up. "Hu is not seeking re-election in the upcoming shareholders' meeting in May, according to our understanding," ProMOS spokesman Albert Lin (林育中) said. Hu, dogged by a financial scandal involving Asia Pacific Wire and Cable Corp (太平洋電線電纜), handed over his post to Chen Ming-liang (陳民良) last August, but remained sitting on ProMOS' nine-member board. Hu, also former chairman of ProMOS' parent company Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽), still owns a 0.2-percent stake in ProMOS.
■ Mister Donut expands
The Japanese pastry shop Mister Donut announced yesterday its entry into Taipei's popular Xinyi district with an opening ceremony for its third outlet scheduled on April 15. The 25-ping store in the New York New York shopping mall would start offering services from 4pm every day in these two weeks and resume normal business hours following the formal opening, said Kevin Lin (林盟欽), president of Mister Donut Taiwan Co (統一多拿滋). The company will soon have a fourth outlet in Taipei in June and wants to expand to a total of 100 within three years after its first store was opened in September last year. Lin expected the new location to sell over 10,000 donuts, worth NT$300,000 (US$9,500), per day.
■ Hsieh wants stable markets
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) has asked government ministries to study ways to keep financial markets stable as new accounting rules come into effect that may lower some companies' earnings and share prices, a Chinese-language newspaper said, citing an interview with Hsieh. Shares of China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) fell 12 percent the past three days after the insurer disclosed its first loss in four years on March 28, citing the new accounting rules.
■ NT dollar rises again
The New Taiwan dollar gained for a second day as overseas investors turned net buyers of the nation's stocks, snapping 14 days of selling. The local currency also rose on speculation exporters are converting overseas earnings to take advantage of a 2.3 percent slide in the NT dollar from a five-year high reached on March 10. The NT dollar rose NT$0.137 to NT$31.393 against its US counterpart, according to Taipei Forex Inc. The currency, which had its biggest monthly drop in March since September 2002, is up 0.3 percent this week. Investors outside Taiwan bought a net NT$1.84 billion of stocks yesterday, according to stock exchange data.
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