HTC Corp (宏達電) plans to sell all of its shares in UK-based Saffron Media Group Ltd as the smartphone maker aims to better utilize its assets and resources in an increasingly difficult market.
Facing stronger competition in both developed and emerging markets, HTC saw its ranking fall out of the world’s top 10 during the first half of the year, according to data compiled by International Data Corp (IDC) and Gartner Inc.
The Taiwanese firm said CDMG Holdings UK Ltd of Cinram Group Inc, one of the world’s largest providers of CDs and DVDs, would buy its 1.6 billion shares in Saffron Media for US$47 million.
Under the terms of the contract, HTC will receive US$7.5 million in cash from Cinram and US$39.5 million in five-year corporate bonds, at a 6 percent annual yield, from CDMG Holdings, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
The company said it would book a profit of NT$156.94 million (US$5.29 million) from the deal. After the share sale, HTC will still own permanent royalty-free rights to Saffron’s intellectual property to continue digital media services on its devices, including the HTC Watch, it added.
In a bid to branch into the mobile entertainment market, in February 2011 HTC invested in Saffron, which provides products and services in 14 languages and 26 countries.
Shares of HTC closed down 4.73 percent at NT$131 yesterday, underperforming the benchmark TAIEX, which gained 1.06 percent, and representing a record low level in the company’s history.
Separately, IDC yesterday said the worldwide mobile phone market was forecast to grow 7.3 percent this year, up from its previous projection of 5.8 percent growth for the year, because of higher global smartphone shipments during the first half of the year, driven by strong gains in emerging markets and the sub-US$200 smartphone segment.
Global smartphone shipments are forecast to grow 40 percent year-on-year to more than 1 billion units this year and reach 1.7 billion units in 2017, IDC said.
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],”
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
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