■FINANCE
Fubon Life to invest in TMC
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) said on Friday its life insurance unit would buy 80 million shares, or a 7.27 stake, in Taiwan Memory Co (TMC, 台灣創新記憶體公司) for NT$800 million (US$24.8 million). The company said it planned to raise funds for Fubon Life Insurance Co’s (富邦人壽) long-term investment in TMC in the fourth quarter of this year, but did not say how. In July, TMC registered with the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ commerce department with an initial capital of NT$500,000. The government-backed memory chipmaker is expected to initially raise NT$11 billion in funds from public and private investors. Besides Fubon Life, TMC has secured investments from chip-testing and packaging firms Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and King Yuan Electronics Co Ltd (京元電子).
■TECHNOLOGY
Ballmer to visit Taipei
Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer will host a technology forum, dubbed “3 Screens and a Cloud,” in Taipei early next month, the company said on Friday. It will be Ballmer’s first visit to Taiwan after taking over Bill Gates as the company’s chief executive. During the forum, Ballmer is expected to share the company’s view on corporate strategies to remain competitive in the tech arena and how the Cloud platform would facilitate seamless Internet connection via handsets, PCs, TVs and other devices. Ballmer also plans to visit Microsoft’s local partners and to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary.
■FINANCE
PRC to launch ChiNext
China will launch its long-awaited NASDAQ-style ChiNext board in Shenzhen on Friday, state media reported yesterday. Shang Fulin (尚福林), chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, announced the start date of the growth enterprise market at a forum in Beijing, Xinhua news agency reported. The first batch of 28 companies will make their debut on Friday, Xinhua said. Regulators hope the new market will help fuel start-ups and other companies with high-growth potential in the world’s third-largest economy, following the example of Wall Street’s Nasdaq.
■AVIATION
JAL seeking partners
Struggling Japan Airlines (JAL) is seeking a tie-up with low-cost carriers for its Asian operations, the Asahi Shimbun said yesterday. JAL, looking for another public bailout to keep flying, is putting together an emergency turnaround plan under the supervision of a government task force. In its cost-cutting efforts, JAL will expand code-sharing operations with budget carriers in Asia, replacing its less profitable flights for tourist destinations, such as Hawaii, Thailand and Indonesia, Asahi said. The move would enable JAL to focus on more profitable business flights to North America, Europe and China, the daily said without citing sources.
■TELECOMS
CEO not quitting over deaths
The CEO of France Telecom, who is under fire for continued suicides among company employees, said he would not resign. Didier Lombard said in an interview in Le Figaro yesterday that a captain couldn’t abandon the ship in a storm. He said he must ensure that France Telecom becomes a “human and prosperous” enterprise. His term runs until 2011. Le Figaro quoted him as saying he was “aghast” at the latest suicide. The company said on Thursday that an employee at its research and development center in Brittany had committed suicide at his home — the 25th in 18 months.
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
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],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day