Teco announces new chairman
Teco Electric & Machinery Co (東元電機), the nation's largest maker of industrial motors, announced a new chairman yesterday. Starting from April 30, Liu Chao-kai (劉兆凱), chairman of Tecom Co (東訊科技), will take over at Teco Electric and replace Theodore Huang (黃茂雄), according to a company statement.
Owned by Teco Electric, Tecom was set up in 1980 and produces telecommunications equipment including Bluetooth and broadband systems.
Huang, who is currently chairman of Teco Group (東元集團) and the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會), had been leading Teco Electric for the past 16 years.
Under his guidance, Teco Electric has moved from being a maker of industrial motors and home appliances, to a high-tech firm operating businesses like flat-panel televisions, DVD recorders and smartcards, the statement said.
The company now has a presence in more than 30 countries.
Shares close lower
Shares closed 0.90 percent lower yesterday as concerns over legal proceedings against Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達) wiped out early gains driven by Wall Street's overnight advance, dealers said.
The TAIEX closed down 72.90 points at 8,002.30, on turnover of NT$114.99 billion (US$3.47 billion).
Decliners outnumbered gainers 880 to 295, with 147 stocks unchanged.
Commission approves mergers
The Fair Trade Commission yesterday approved two merger applications submitted by telecommunications operators. Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the nation's second-biggest mobile operator, was allowed to take over Q-ware Systems and Services Corp (安源資訊), which operates Taipei's Wi-Fi networks and is a telecom affiliate of Uni-President Group (統一集團), its statement read.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大), the third-largest mobile carrier, was also given the green light to acquire fixed-line operator Taiwan Fixed Network Co (台灣固網).
Separately, the commission yesterday fined Sinyi Real Estate Inc (信義房屋), the nation's largest housing agent, NT$1.2 million (US$36,250) for misleading advertisements, which violated Article 21 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法).
Sinyi Real Estate claimed that homebuyers are entitled to zero risks during the transaction process, which the commission said is not true.
Asustek sues Ricoh
Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the world's largest motherboard maker, sued Ricoh Co to challenge four patents covering compact-disk drives.
Asustek said in a complaint filed on April 5 in federal court in San Jose, California, that it was afraid Ricoh would sue it again for patent infringement after an earlier lawsuit in another court was dismissed. It asked for court judgments that the patents were invalid or not infringed.
Ricoh, Japan's third-largest maker of color laser printers, in August sued Asustek and Quanta Storage Inc (廣明), claiming they were using its technology without permission. Ricoh's suit, filed in federal court in Madison, Wisconsin, sought cash compensation and a halt on use of Ricoh's patented technology.
US District Judge Barbara Crabb threw out Ricoh's case on April 3, saying Asustek didn't have a sufficient presence in western Wisconsin, according to court papers.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar gained ground against its US counterpart, advancing NT$0.004 to close at NT$33.101 yesterday on the Taipei Forex Inc.
Turnover was US$628 million.
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
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day