TAIEX makes technical rebound
The TAIEX staged a mild technical rebound yesterday after slumping a day earlier as investors snapped up battered high-priced electronics stocks, dealers said.
The upside was limited, though, by thin trading volume as many investors took to the sidelines, waiting to see if US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would hint at new stimulus measures in a speech tomorrow, they said.
The weighted index closed up 29.21 points, or 0.40 percent, at 7,391.15, after moving between 7,368.40 and 7,405.30 on turnover of NT$62.56 billion (US$2.09 billion).
Hon Hai to buy LCD patents
The head of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) said the electronics manufacturer is buying key LCD panel patents from Japan’s NEC Corp.
Terry Gou (郭台銘) said in Tokyo late on Tuesday that the deal would be signed soon, but did not give details.
Gou has sought tie-ups with Japanese firms to jointly combat growing competition from South Korea. In March, Hon Hai announced it was buying a 9.9 percent stake in struggling Sharp Corp.
Acer’s India business booming
Acer Inc (宏碁) vaulted past Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc to become the second-largest PC vendor in India in the second quarter, research firm Gartner Inc said in a statement on Tuesday.
Acer shipped 388,600 units for a 13.4 percent market share, surpassing HP (13.1 percent) and Dell (12.9 percent) to seize second spot, Gartner said.
China’s Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) retained its No. 1 position with a 16.6 percent market share, it said.
Smartphones for homes popular
Smartphones have become the second-most popular device for Internet home use, according to a survey published yesterday by Chinese-language Global Views Monthly Magazine.
The poll showed that 52.7 percent of Internet users browse the Web at home on their smartphones, with 87 percent using desktop PCs, 52 percent using laptops and 24.2 percent using tablets.
The magazine said it would be interesting to see whether smartphones would replace traditional fixed-line equipment.
The survey was conducted from Aug. 11 to Aug. 14 among 1,041 respondents. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
Chunghwa promotes Lee
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s largest telecoms operator, yesterday said vice president Lee Yen-sung (李炎松) had formally taken over the president’s post from Chang Shiao-tung (張曉東), who is retiring.
Lee said in the handover ceremony that he would assist chairman Lu Shyue-ching (呂學錦) to introduce more value-added, customer-oriented services.
Chinatrust bank signs MOU
Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金控) yesterday said its banking unit, Chinatrust Commercial Bank (中國信託商銀), had signed a memorandum of understanding with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s (阿里巴巴集團) Alipay, aiming to offer integrated services to the nation’s small and medium-sized businesses.
The two parties plan to integrate Chinatrust’s financial services platform with Alibaba’s e-commerce operation to help local small businesses to reach out to global markets, a company statement said.
NT dollar gains ground
The New Taiwan dollar rose against the US dollar yesterday, edging up NT$0.026 to close at NT$29.981 on the back of buying from local exporters, who were taking advantage of recent declines, dealers said.
Turnover totaled US$658 million during the trading session.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six