HTC buys US design firm
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s biggest maker of mobile phones running on Microsoft Inc’s system, said yesterday it had spent US$4.82 million in cash to buy a US design company through an overseas subsidiary.
The company made the statement in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The deal will help strengthen HTC’s innovation and design capabilities, CEO Peter Chou (周永明) told reporters last Friday. HTC did not reveal the name of the US company.
HTC is looking for more acquisition opportunities to enhance its core business, Chou said.
The company favors companies with a strategic fit such as software firms, he said.
New debit card launched
Far Eastern International Bank (遠東商銀) and MasterCard Worldwide yesterday launched a new debit card that combines the bonus program offered by Happy Go (快樂購) cards and millions of shopping outlets worldwide.
Cardholders will be able to collect bonus points when shopping at 28 million MasterCard outlets worldwide, up from the current 5,000 local outlets.
Speaking at the product launch yesterday, Alan Lee, (李銘傳), executive vice president of the bank’s consumer banking and credit card group, said the bank had set a target of issuing 500,000 cards within a year and breaking the 1 million mark in three years.
Sell Foxconn: Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG downgraded its rating on Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康), the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of mobile phones, to “sell” on projections that orders would slow.
Foxconn’s sales next year may decline by 10 percent, Deutsche Bank analyst KC Kao wrote in a report on saturday, citing “unfavorable handset dynamics.”
The analyst cut his stock rating for the Shenzhen, China-based company from “hold” and lowered his price target to HK$1.70 (US$0.22) from HK$4.20.
Foxconn shares, which rose 5 percent to HK$2.05 in Hong Kong trading on Friday, have declined 88 percent this year, underperforming the 54 percent drop in the territory’s benchmark Hang Seng Index.
Tingyi’s Q3 profit rises 20%
Tingyi (Cayman Islands) Holding Corp (頂益控股), China’s biggest maker of packaged food, said third-quarter profit rose 20 percent.
Net income for the three months ended September rose to US$91.9 million from US$76.5 million in the same period last year, the Tianjin-based company said in a statement to Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday. Sales increased to US$1.3 billion from US$995 million.
Chunghwa may shutter LCD fab
Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd (華映), the nation’s fourth-biggest maker of liquid-crystal displays, may shut down one of its factories to cut costs after posting a loss in the third quarter, James Wu (巫俊毅), chief financial officer of the Taoyuan-based company, said by telephone yesterday.
NT dollar weakens
The New Taiwan dollar weakened by NT$0.033 to close at NT$33.421 against the greenback on turnover of US$543 million.
Analysts said that the currency fell on mounting speculation the economy is entering its first recession since 2001.
“Demand from foreign markets is slowing and has affected not only volume but also prices,” said Forest Chen, an economist at Taiwan Securities Investment Advisory (台證投顧) in Taipei. “It will be hard to escape the slowdown, and the central bank will probably let the currency fall to NT$34 or NT$35 in the fourth quarter.”
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
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
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks