Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (
Powerchip only obtained two seats on the 15-member board of Macronix during the boardroom election yesterday. Led by Frank Huang (
Macronix's existing management team, led by chairman Miin Wu (
The results of the boardroom election came after the local stock market closed. Shares of Powerchip fell 0.3 percent to NT$20, while Macronix saw its stocks fall 2.2 percent to NT$15.55.
"We thought Macronix was a company worth investing in. We hope to better understand the company. If not, we will consider selling our holding," Powerchip vice chairman Michael Tsai (
Demand for flash memory chips, which are used to store songs and pictures in music players and digital cameras, has been on the rise in the past few years.
Sensing the growth potential of Macronix, which makes flash memory chips used in game consoles, Powerchip has increased its holdings in Macronix since last year and holds a 5.34 percent stake in the smaller rival.
The boardroom fight at Macronix regained media attention after Powerchip asked shareholders to elect its representatives to the board to help improve Macronix's cost-saving abilities in the long term.
But Wu asked shareholders to reject Powerchip representatives, saying that Powerchip only aimed to obtain Macronix's patents and technologies.
While criticizing Huang's past insider trading allegations, Wu also accused Powerchip of hoping to use control over Macronix for personal benefit, which Powerchip said was untrue.
Huang is currently under investigation for suspected involvement in an insider trading scandal involving Veutron Corp (
Tsai said the company would not rule out the possibility of filing an injunction against Macronix next Tuesday for proxy vote collection controversy.
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