The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday said it would interview representatives of South Korean online gaming giant Nexon Co next week in the wake of the company’s alleged hostile takeover bid for Taiwanese gaming firm Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子).
The commission will ask Nexon to comment on its definition of Gamania’s market share, the particular field it defines Gamania as being in, and its current relations with Gamania — vital information in discerning whether Nexon has violated the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法), Fair Trade Commission Chairman Wu Shiow-ming (吳秀明) said at a legislative meeting.
The Fair Trade Act stipulates that any planned merger involving a company with more than a 25 percent market share in a particular field must be reported to the authorities.
Local media has reported that Nexon held more than 33 percent of Gamania’s shares as of the end of March, at least 10 percent more than Gamania chairman and CEO Albert Li’s (劉柏園) holdings.
Wu said the commission would “not just take Nexon’s word for it,” and stressed that it will follow judicial procedures to review the case.
On Monday, Nexon said in a statement that it believed Gamania’s market share was less than 25 percent of the overall Taiwanese digital content industry, which includes online games and other forms of digital entertainment.
In acquiring the shares, Nexon said it has made timely reports to Gamania and the government securities agency in Taiwan.
The government is currently checking the veracity of those claims.
Gamania issued a statement yesterday, saying it insisted on remaining independent and objecting to any merger with Nexon.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
RSS