The Carlyle Group yesterday received a green light from the Fair Trade Commission to buy a majority stake in Eastern Multimedia Co (
"The deal is merely a transfer of ownership and will not significantly impact on competition in the nation's cable television market," the commission said in a statement released yesterday.
"Consequently, the commission will not block the deal," it said.
The Carlyle Group, manager of the US' largest buyout fund, applied for the share purchase under the name Carlyle Unicorn Holdings Ltd. It agreed to pay NT$47.6 billion (US$1.47 billion) for control of Eastern Multimedia and 12 of its cable television affiliates.
Eastern Multimedia is the largest cable television operator in the country. Along with the 12 affiliates, Eastern Multimedia has 1.01 million subscribers, or 22 percent of the local market, the statement said.
According to statistics of the Investment Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Eastern Multimedia had 1.05 million subscribers, or a 23.4 percent market share, as of the end of last year.
The second-largest cable TV provider is China Network Systems Co (
The commission said the Carlyle Group's purchase would introduce funds and technology from a foreign specialized institution, which would help to enhance local cable TV operators' technological capabilities, in addition to the economic benefits.
The new overseas investor could also provide high-quality products and services to local consumers by developing value-added or diversified services, the statement read.
Gary Wang (
Carlyle also planned to participate in raising capital at Eastern Home Shopping Network (東森購物), a money-making arm of Eastern Multimedia, with NT$17 per share, Wang said.
Carlyle's holdings in Eastern Home Shopping Network were expected to reach 25 percent in the near term, he said.
But Carlyle still needs to gain approval from the National Communications Commission (NCC) and the Investment Commission before officially taking over Eastern Multimedia.
The NCC rejected Carlyle's first application last Friday, citing insufficient documents on market share and operation plans. Carlyle also needs to ensure that the operator and 12 distributors don't control more than one-third of the market, as stipulated by law.
Carlyle might be able to obtain the approval of the Investment Commission, which will hold a meeting to review the bid this month, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing Emile Chang (
"No committee members opposed the investment," Chang was quoted as saying.
In related news, the Fair Trade Commission yesterday also allowed Avenger International Ltd, an investment company registered in the Cayman Islands, to buy more than one-third of the shares in a cable television operator in Pingtung, according to a statement.
The operator has about 48,000 subscribers, or 1 percent of the total market, it said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the