Acer postpones auction
PC brand Acer Inc (宏碁) will delay the auction of a building in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) from its scheduled date of tomorrow until June 30, a company statement said yesterday.
The Taipei-based company said in the statement that it made the decision at the request of potential bidders. The building was formerly the property of handheld device maker E-Ten Information System Co (倚天), which Acer acquired in March 2008.
Acer’s board approved the plan to sell the building in December last year. Based on a Taipei Stock Exchange filing on Dec. 13, the company expected to sell the building for between NT$2.4 billion (US$83 million) and NT$3 billion, based on initial estimates.
The company has hired Colliers International to sell the building.
Computing alliance mulled
Taiwan and China should cooperate in developing mobile cloud computing technology to combat South Korea’s vertical integration strategy, Acer Inc (宏碁) chairman and chief executive J. T. Wang (王振堂) said on Sunday.
Speaking at a cross-strait information and communications technology forum as Taipei Computer Association (TCA, 台北市電腦公會) head, Wang said the industry was transitioning from a single structure dominated by Windows and Intel to a multi-platform world.
Calling mobile Internet the next big thing in the global technology market, Wang urged Taiwan and China to devise a structurally competitive strategy that would give them an unbeatable advantage in this newly diverse world.
Sanyang borrows NT$4.5bn
Sanyang Industrial Co (三陽工業), which makes motorcycles and cars in Taiwan, borrowed NT$4.5 billion (US$155 million) in a two-part loan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Both facilities, of NT$3.5 billion and NT$1 billion respectively, mature in June 2015 and the proceeds will be used as working capital and to refinance debt, the data showed.
Fubon HK applies for listing
Fubon Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd (富銀香港) applied to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to list its US$1 billion Euro Medium Term Note Program, a statement posted on the company Web site yesterday said. The listing is expected to become effective on Thursday, it said.
Fubon Bank (Hong Kong), formerly known as the International Bank of Asia (港基銀行), is a subsidiary of Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控). The Hong Kong Stock Exchange approved the lender’s delisting on June 8.
FSC data project to cut costs
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) has been actively promoting a project aimed at integrating data transmissions of securities and futures-related organizations as part of its efforts to reduce the operational costs of participants in the securities and futures market, thereby enhancing the efficiency of information services and the competitiveness of the local market.
The completion of the project will reduce annual transaction costs for the market by between NT$130 million and NT$200 million, according to the commission.
The promotion of the project began in December 2009, with the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (台灣證交所), Taiwan Futures Exchange (台灣期交所), the GRETAI Securities Market (櫃買中心) and the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corp (集保結算所) all taking part in the project.
NT dollar stays at US$29
The New Taiwan dollar closed flat against the US currency yesterday, remaining unchanged at NT$29.00.
Turnover totaled US$995 million during the trading session.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by