Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's largest notebook maker, posted its highest quarterly profit last quarter after disposing of a money-losing unit.
The company's net income in the three months to Sept. 30 was NT$3.86 billion (US$116 million), or NT$1.15 per share, a rise of 13 percent from NT$3.42 billion, or NT$1.06 a share, in the same period last year.
The profit rise was attributable to the disposal of Quanta's panel-making unit Quanta Display Inc (QDI, 廣輝電子), Jason Lin (林群傑), the director of the company's strategic investment division, told reporters at its Taoyuan headquarters yesterday.
Quanta announced in April that it planned to sell QDI, in which it holds a 27 percent share, to larger rival AU Optronics Corp (
The acquisition was completed on Oct. 1 and Quanta was not required to recognize QDI's losses in the third quarter based on Taiwan's accounting rules, the company said.
Quanta absorbed QDI's losses, which came to NT$1.5 billion, in the second quarter. This caused the computer maker's net income in that period over the year earlier to drop to NT$2.11 billion.
Quanta's sales last quarter rose 6 percent to NT$109.9 billion. Gross margin was 5.1 percent, down from 6 percent last year, the company said.
But the company failed to achieve the targeted quarterly notebook shipment growth of 20 percent. Notebook sales grew only 7 percent -- 4.6 million units -- last quarter.
"We forecast better shipments earlier as clients said they would place more orders," Lin said.
Quanta expects shipments of notebooks will rise 30 percent next quarter to 6 million units due to seasonal factors, but it adjusted downward the whole-year volume to 20 million, down from 21 million.
Next year's total shipments would likely increase 25 percent to hit 25 million, the company said.
Non-core businesses -- including liquid-crystal-display (LCD) TVs, handsets, automotive electronics, servers and storage products -- are expected to account for 25 percent of total revenues next year, up from this year's 20 percent, Lin said.
Quanta is in a bid to beef up the low margin of its notebook products, and hopes to push other business segments to at least 30 percent of total sales by 2008.
Non-core businesses look promising next year, as handset shipments will grow to 3 million from 2 million this year, while LCD television shipments will rise at least two fold from this year's 300,000 units, Lin said.
Sales of servers will grow 20 percent, while vehicle electronics will expand by 50 percent, he said.
Quanta is also expecting to cash in on the business opportunities -- especially in servers and storage products -- when shipments of the "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) project starts next year.
"Some countries do not have a basic IT infrastructure and there is untapped business potential following the project's rollout," said Michael Wang (
These simple laptops will only cost approximately US$100 -- much cheaper than the current mainstream notebook models sold at US$600 -- as they became available to children in developing nations including Libya, Thailand, Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina.
The OLPC laptops will officially be rolled off production lines in the second quarter next year, Wang said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last