BenQ Corp (
The Taipei-based mobile phone maker has signed an agreement to sell a research center in Aalborg, Denmark to the world's second-largest mobile phone brand, according to a joint statement released yesterday.
"With the sale of the R&D site in Aalborg, Denmark, we found an ideal solution for the employees and made another important step toward being in the black by the end of the year," said Clemens Joos, chief executive officer of BenQ Mobile.
As part of the transaction, Motorola will acquire approximately 250 employees, the statement said. The deal is expected to be closed in early June, it said, without disclosing the terms.
The company is sticking by its goal of breaking even by the year end, Joos said.
BenQ posted operating losses of NT$17.39 billion (US$549.9 million) for the past two quarters after taking over Siemens AG's mobile unit in October. Since then, BenQ said it has saved 150 million euros (US$190 million) in costs with a large part from the closure of a research and development center in Ulm of Germany.
"Apparently there is some cost savings for BenQ [by selling the Denmark research center]," said Vincent Chen (
The Denmark research center costs BenQ about 15 million euros a year, Chen estimated.
After the sale, BenQ will have only three research centers in Europe -- two in Munich and Kamp Lintfort, Germany and one in Wroclav, Poland.
High Tech Computer Corp (
BenQ is trying to improve its operations and to increase cash flow by selling assets. In the middle of last month, BenQ announced that it would sell a non-core optical disk drive unit to local rival Lite-On Technology Corp (建興電子) for about NT$6.2 billion in cash and stock.
Although BenQ will continue to post operating losses in the next seven quarters, "we tend to believe the worst for BenQ is behind us," Chen said.
BenQ shares have declined about 11.5 percent since it announced the takeover of Siemens' mobile division last June.
The shares closed at NT$28.4 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
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