BenQ Corp (明基), which took over Siemens AG's cellphone unit on Oct. 1, said on Monday it agreed to sponsor Spanish soccer club Real Madrid from next season through 2010 for an undisclosed amount.
The world's richest team will wear the BenQ-Siemens brand on its jerseys and display the logo at its Santiago Bernabeu stadium, BenQ said in a statement. Sports daily Marca said the accord is worth 100 million euros (US$118 million).
"It's one of the top deals" in sports team sponsorship, said Jan Lindemann, global managing director of brand valuation at Interbrand, a London-based consultant. "It's a big leap for BenQ."
Siemens has sponsored Madrid, whose squad includes David Beckham, Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane, since 2002. The Siemens accord, worth 17 million euros this season according to Marca, expires in June.
Vodafone, the world's largest cellphone company, pays ?9 million (US$15.7 million) a year to put its name on Manchester United's jerseys. According to London-based consultant Redmandarin Ltd, Samsung Electronics Co pays Chelsea ?10 million a year.
BenQ, Taiwan's biggest handset maker, may seek to benefit from its association with Beckham, soccer's richest player who ended a three-year endorsement accord with Vodafone in July.
"There's an opportunity there," Lindemann said.
The association with Taipei-based BenQ will boost Real Madrid in Asia, the team's marketing director Jose Angel Sanchez said in the statement. The team went on tours of China and Japan in the last two years to boost its brand.
Real Madrid ended Manchester United's eight-year reign as the biggest soccer team by revenue after sales rose 17 percent to 275.7 million euros in the year ended June 30, according to accounts approved by the Spanish team's members on Oct. 2.
Madrid failed to win a trophy in the last two seasons, its worst stint in 13 years.
Siemens in June agreed to pay BenQ 250 million euros to take over its unprofitable cellphone unit.
The BenQ brand is worth US$343.5 million compared with Siemens' US$7.5 billion, according to Interbrand.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
RSS