Business Briefs

UMC joins forces with Elpida

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest custom-chip maker, said it will jointly develop chips with Elpida Memory Inc.

United Microelectronics, based in Hsinchu will make dynamic random access memory (DRAM), semiconductors with Tokyo-based Elpida, the chipmakers said in a combined press release.

The chips will be made at Elpida's factory in Hiroshima on wafers measuring 12 inches in diameter, with United Microelectronics contributing intellectual property and other technologies to the venture, they said Elpida, Japan's largest maker of DRAM, signed a deal with United Microelectronics in October to develop other types of memory chips, the companies said in the release.

VIA shares down 6.79%

Shares of local chip designer VIA Technologies Inc (威盛科技) plunged near the 7 percent daily limit after the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported that it was evaluating the feasibility of cutting capital to improve finances.

VIA could cut its capital by 10 percent to 20 percent, the report said, without citing any sources. VIA is considering bringing the proposal to the annual shareholder meeting for approval, the report said.

The stock declined 6.79 percent to NT$17.15 yesterday, totaling a 12.5 percent drop since the beginning of this year.

VIA has NT$13.09 billion (US$425.8 million) in capital. Net value fell to NT$9.1 per share in the third quarter of last year in the wake of constant losses, according to a company statement.

VIA posted NT$2.63 billion in losses in the first nine months of last year after its chipset business failed to make progress in getting agreement from Intel Corp in selling its chipsets and new products including processors and mobile phone chips were unable to make great contribution yet.

Inotera scraps stock sale plan

Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), the chip venture between Qimonda AG and Taiwan's Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), scrapped plans to sell NT$8.4 billion in stock because of falling share prices, president Charles Kau (高啟全) said.

The sale "is canceled, it can't be done," Kau said in a telephone interview today from Taoyuan, where the chipmaker is based. "The price is not good."

Inotera joins fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger Corp and China's Fuyao Group Glass Industries Co (福耀玻璃工業) in withdrawing or postponing share sale plans this year. The MSCI World Index has fallen 12 percent this year, headed for its biggest quarterly drop since 2002, on mounting concerns a credit squeeze has pushed the US into a recession.

Inotera shares were down 6.9 percent yesterday, closing at a one-month low of NT$25.15.

HannStar shoots down rumor

Local flat-panel maker HannStar Display Corp (瀚宇彩晶) yesterday denied speculation that the company mulled to build a next-generation plant in cooperation with South Korean panel maker LG Display Co Ltd to make TV screens, joining industry major players such as AU Optronics Corp (友達光電).

LG Display, formerly known as LG Philips LCD Co, bought a 3.42 percent stake in HannStar for NT$3.17 billion via private placement in December.

"The report is a media speculation," HannStar said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

NT down against greenback

The New Taiwan dollar yesterday weakened by NT$0.106 to close at NT$30.850 against its US counterpart on turnover of US$2.8565 billion -- the exchange market's sixth-largest in history.