A Los Angeles jury has awarded two Taiwanese companies US$46.7 million in a lawsuit over a contract to sell laptops to Wal-Mart.
Plaintiffs BHE Group, Inc and GBM International, Inc (精成國際), two subsidiaries of the Taiwanese athletic footwear manufacturer Pou Chen (寶成), won Friday’s verdict, lawyer Skip Miller said on Monday.
“This is a good day for the good guys,” Miller said.
The two companies sued MTS Products and its chairman, Ben Hsia for breach of contract over a joint-venture to import laptops and other electronics to the US for sale at Wal-Mart stores.
Hsia countersued, alleging that Pou Chen was overcharging and dumping outdated products.
“The deal went south fast because they sold us inferior products,” said Stephen Bost, an attorney for Hsia and MTS.
When the dispute arose between the US company and the Taiwanese suppliers, Hsia began withholding funds until the sides could come to an agreement, said Bost.
The total verdict included US$28.4 million in actual damages, which Bost said equals the amount that MTS withheld when the deal soured, plus $9.7 million in lost profits and US$8.5 million in interest.
The jury also awarded Hsia US$1.75 million in lost earnings and US$9.5 million in lost profits.
However, Pou Chen said yesterday in Taipei that it had not invested in either BHE Group or GBM International.
“The lawsuit and the compensation have nothing to do with Pou Chen,” the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KEVIN CHEN
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure