■ Acer signs licensing deal
Acer Inc, the fourth-largest name-brand personal computer vendor in the world, said yesterday it has been granted patent licensing on computer system memory management from Integraph Hardware Technologies of the US. "The patent licensing involves flash memory chips used in Pentium level central processing units equipped in laptop and desktop computers," an Acer spokesman said. The two companies signed the patent agreement on Friday. However, Acer declined to disclose other details about the agreement.
■ CDFHC makes special report
China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) yesterday made a special report on its controversial hostile takeover bid for Taiwan International Securities Corp (金鼎證券) to its board of directors on the demand of new chairman Lin Cheng-yi (林誠一), who said later on that he recognized the company did not commit any unlawful activities during the process. The ad hoc meeting progressed smoothly and all the directors agreed to improve corporate governance in the future, China Development's vice president of corporate affairs Civi Tsai (蔡玉如) said yesterday. Tsai however declined to elaborate on Lin's decision on whether to proceed with the acquisition of Taiwan International Securities, citing confidentiality. The financial group announced yesterday that it has stepped up its shareholding in the targeted brokerage to 41.08 percent. China Development Financial is expected to carry on with its takeover of Taiwan International Securities or it would need to bear all the investment loss, SinoPac Securities Corp's analyst Chu Yu-chun (朱玉君) said. The financial holding firm is facing a judicial investigation of its alleged involvement in insider trading amid its hostile takeover attempt after the financial regulator handed over the case to prosecutors earlier this month.
■ Chen named Taipower chief
Edward Chen (陳貴明), president of Taiwan Power Co (台電), was named as the state-run utility's chairman, the Ministry of Econ-omic Affairs said in a statement released yesterday. Chen, 58, who has a master's degree in nuclear engineering from National Tsinghua University, will succeed Morgan Hwang (黃營杉), who was appointed minister of economic affairs, it said. The government owns 97 percent of Taiwan Power, which generates about 75 percent of the electricity the nation uses and monopolizes transmission. One major task for the new chairman is the adjustment of electricity prices. Fuel costs have surged by NT$70 billion from 2003 to date, Chen said. The company is evaluating the mechanism for the price hike, and may increase the rates for consumption of over 110 kilowatt-hours per month, he said. The average household electricity consumption is about 360 kilowatt-hours per month, he said.
■ Tesco after local suppliers
Tesco, the UK's largest supermarket chain, is to hold a procurement presentation to attract local suppliers of cosmetics, automobile accessories, stationery, toys and children's products, a spokesman for the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) said over the weekend. Tesco is organizing the event at TAITRA'S invitation, the spokesman said. Tesco opened its first local outlet at the end of 2000 in Taipei's Nangang District. The shop was acquired from Makro, a Dutch group that shifted its business to wholesale from retail. Tesco is set to pull out of Taiwan's retail market later this year.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by