Because of concerns about the involvement of government investment, Taiwan Mobile Co’s (台灣大哥大) plan to buy a majority stake in Kbro Co (凱擘) is still in limbo seven months after the bid was announced, the National Communications Commission (NCC) said yesterday.
The Cable Television Act (有線電視法) bars government agencies, political parties and the military from investing directly or indirectly in media companies such as cable system operators.
The approval of the nation’s media regulator is the final hurdle remaining for the deal, in which Taiwan Mobile offered to buy a 32 percent stake in Kbro from the Carlyle Group for NT$32.8 billion (US$1 billion) before the June 30 deadline to gain control of the nation’s No. 2 cable TV operator.
The Fair Trade Commission approved the merger in December.
“We are not worried about the deadline. As both sides intend to push this deal through, we can extend the deadline,” Taiwan Mobile spokesperson Josephine Juan (阮淑祥) said by phone.
NCC spokesperson Chen Jeng-chang (陳正倉) confirmed yesterday that both Carlyle Group managing director Gregory Zeluck and Taiwan Mobile vice chairman Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) have spoken to the commission to clear up some of the regulator’s concerns.
The NCC sought to clarify the legality of the deal because if the deal goes through, the Taipei City Government would indirectly hold shares of Kbro.
“The questions we asked included how they plan to safeguard shareholders’ interests and how they plan to improve the quality of programs,” Chen said.
“Some commissioners were also concerned about other potential problems if the NCC approved the application for an ownership change, such as whether Taiwan Mobile would abuse its position to establish a monopoly in the market,” Chen added.
The Taipei City Government acquired a 15 percent stake in Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) after the government-owned Taipei Bank (台北銀行) — in which it held a 44 percent stake — was absorbed by Fubon Bank (富邦銀行) in 2005. Fubon Financial is the parent company of Taiwan Mobile.
Juan said Taiwan Mobile hopes the problem can be resolved by amending the Cable Television Act to better suit the market situation.
However, Chen said that until the legislature passes an amendment to the Cable Television Act, the government, political parties and the military still cannot invest in cable TV operators either directly or indirectly.
Chen said the commission had asked Taiwan Mobile to submit more documents for further review.
Last year, five cable system operators owned by Taiwan Fixed Network (台灣固網), a unit of Taiwan Mobile, were fined a total of NT$500,000 for having investments from the government, political parties or the military.
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
On Ireland’s blustery western seaboard, researchers are gleefully flying giant kites — not for fun, but in the hope of generating renewable electricity and sparking a “revolution” in wind energy. “We use a kite to capture the wind and a generator at the bottom of it that captures the power,” said Padraic Doherty of Kitepower, the Dutch firm behind the venture. At its test site in operation since September 2023 near the small town of Bangor Erris, the team transports the vast 60-square-meter kite from a hangar across the lunar-like bogland to a generator. The kite is then attached by a
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
RSS