■ UMC, Rambus expand IP deal
United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) said yesterday that it and Rambus Inc, a top US technology licensing company specializing in high-speed chip interfaces, will expand their licensing agreement. Under the agreement, UMC customers will gain access to Rambus' broad portfolio of PCI Express-based interfaces drawing on UMC's 0.18 micron, 0.15 micron 90-nanometer (nm) processes, adding to the 0.13 micron technology made available last year. The PCI Express interface standard is one of the industry's most successful for chip-to-chip interconnects and can be found in system applications ranging from supercomputers to PCs and digital TVs. "We are pleased to expand our licensing agreement with Rambus to make its proven IP solutions available to a broader range of technologies, including our mainstream 90nm process," Ken Liou (劉康懋), director of UMC's IP and Design Support Division, said in a statement.
■ Mega board endorses M&A plan
Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控), Taiwan's second-largest financial company by assets, has endorsed chairman Cheng Shen-chih's (鄭深池) plan to seek merger and acquisition opportunities. Cheng was "authorized by the board of directors to represent the company for talks in mergers and acquisitions with others at the appropriate time," the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange late yesterday. The government wants to halve the number of financial holding companies in the nation in two years, to help them compete with overseas rivals such as Citigroup Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc. It's offering merger incentives to the nearly 50 banks and 300 community-level lending associations that compete for business among about 23 million people. Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控) on July 22 agreed to pay NT$36.6 billion (US$1.14 billion) for management control of Chang Hwa Commercial Bank (彰化銀行), creating the second-largest banking group in Taiwan in terms of assets.
■ IDB eyes pharmaceuticals
The Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) is working to form a pharmaceutical export strategic alliance as part of its efforts to help local manufacturers make inroads into overseas markets, bureau officials said yesterday. Ten pharmaceutical companies have expressed a willingness to join the alliance, which will be aimed at seeking generic drug export and overseas OEM orders, as well as at trying to gain market share in the US and Japan for Taiwan drug makers. According to the IDB, the output of the pharmaceutical industries in Europe, Japan and the US accounts for more than 80 percent of the global total. As Japan enacted a new law in April regulating the separation of the production and sale of pharmaceuticals and as the US government has been encouraging the use of generic drugs, now is the perfect time for Taiwanese pharmaceutical companies to make inroads into these markets, the officials said. The bureau has plans to form three strategic alliances to push for the export of 10 to 15 kinds of generic drugs. It's expected that in five years, Taiwan's pharmaceutical exports will increase NT$10 billion (US$3.1 billion) , posting an annual growth rate of over 20 percent.
■ NT dollar declines
The New Taiwan dollar lost ground against the US dollar on the Taipei Foreign Exchange yesterday, declining NT$0.151 to close at NT$32.280. A total of US$1.06 billion changed hands during the day's trading.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure