Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), maker of the low-cost laptop Eee PC, said yesterday it has no concrete plan to sell a stake in its PC manufacturing subsidiary Pegatron Corp (和碩), dismissing speculation about a potential deal with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
“It is a long-term direction for us to sell [some shares of Pegatron] via strategic alliances,” Asustek spokesman Nick Wu (吳長榮) said by telephone yesterday.
Wu said Asustek had been talking to potential partners for a while, but had not made substantial progress yet.
Earlier yesterday, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported that Asustek was considering a plan to sell shares of Pegatron via a share swap with Hon Hai, the nation’s largest electronics component maker. The speculation swirled after Hon Hai recently tapped into the notebook computer manufacturing business, the report said.
Wu said he could not comment on any specific case or company.
In a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, Asustek said it had yet to make any decision for a share swap deal. The company said it has no concrete share sale plan, nor fundraising project. Hon Hai also said in a separate stock exchange filing that the report was groundless.
Yuanta Securities (元大證券) yesterday maintained a “buy” rating on Asustek as the stock has overcorrected on concerns over slowing demand in Europe and the profitability of the Eee PC. Yuanta saw these concerns as unfounded.
Asustek is trading at its lowest level in five years, making it the cheapest global PC brand, Yuanta analyst Vincent Chen (陳豊丰) said in the report.
Yuanta, however, trimmed its Asustek earnings forecast slightly by 7.8 percent for this year and 16.7 percent for next year to NT$26.74 billion (US$836.4 million) and NT$32.44 billion, citing Pegatron’s higher-than-expected expenses.
Asustek spun off its electronics manufacturing division early this year to notebook maker Pegatron and motherboard maker Unihan Corp (永碩).
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”