IBM Taiwan Corp yesterday remained evasive about rumors that the government tried to prevent China's largest personal computer (PC) maker Lenovo Group Ltd (
"We [IBM Taiwan], along with IBM's branches in other countries, have lodged our applications in compliance with local regulations after the [acquisition] deal was settled on May 1," said Laurence Hwang (黃維德), executive of IBM Taiwan's personal systems group.
Hwang declined to comment on reports that the government was trying to obstruct China-based Lenovo's bid for the local IBM branch.
"We will endeavor to complete the whole process as early as possible," Hwang said, without giving a clear timeframe.
The company originally hoped to be taken over by Lenovo and start operations by the end of the current quarter, following the Chinese firm's takeover of IBM's PC unit.
Hwang also shied away from confirming any alternatives IBM might be considering, such as setting up a branch in Taiwan by IBM's Dutch PC unit, and then transferring the stakes to Lenovo to bypass potential regulatory interference, a Taipei-based Chinese-language business daily reported on Tuesday.
Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said yesterday that the case is not as complicated as it seems, as IBM's Taiwan unit is engaged in procurement and retailing, rather than investment.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained