Mitsukoshi sets sales target
Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store Co Ltd (新光三越百貨) yesterday said its three department stores on Nanjing W Road in Taipei are targeted to generate total sales of NT$2.26 billion (US$75 million) during the 18-day anniversary sales beginning on Thursday next week and ending on Oct. 12. That would represent an increase of 5 percent from last year’s annual sales event.
Revenue generated from the annual event accounts for more than 20 percent of the sales of the three stores, which reported that total revenue for the first eight months of the year rose 7 percent from the same period last year, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi said.
Cree sues Harvatek
US-based Cree Inc has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Harvatek Corp (宏齊), claiming the Taiwanese LED chipmaker infringed on six of its patents.
Harvatek said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it expects no major financial impact from the lawsuit, since most of its products are shipped to Asian markets.
Only a small portion of its chips are involved in the patent-infringement disputes, Harvatek said yesterday, adding that it has not received any formal notification from the US district court in Wisconsin.
Acer to issue restricted shares
Acer Inc (宏碁) said on Tuesday it planned to issue 50 million new restricted shares to award high-ranking managers in four years, as the company boosts its efforts to retain talent and increase its revenue and profit.
The NT$1.16 billion restricted shares will be the first of its kind for Acer.
Last month, the company granted the first batch of restricted shares to several executives, including chairman George Huang (黃少華), cofounder Stan Shih (施振榮) and chief executive Jason Chen (陳俊聖), with 480,000 shares each.
Acer said executives would receive the restricted shares only after the company hits the annual revenue or profit goals set a year ago.
Communications output rising
Output by Taiwan’s communications sector is expected to rise by an annual 9.9 percent to NT$2.82 trillion next year as international brands launch new models, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (資策會) said on Tuesday.
Welber Chang (張奇), a research manager and senior industry analyst at the center, said that Taiwan’s projected output growth could outstrip the global industry’s forecast growth of 7.9 percent to US$500 billion next year, from an estimated US$463.2 billion this year.
Chang said Taiwan’s communications device suppliers are likely to benefit from China’s efforts to develop its long-term evolution (LTE) services, while an acceleration of the construction of wireless local area networks (WLAN) and small cells globally is likely to further boost Taiwan’s communications output.
Taipei, Manila to discuss FTA
Taiwan and the Philippines are likely to exchange ideas regarding a free-trade agreement (FTA) during their annual ministerial-level meeting on economic cooperation scheduled to take place on Oct. 23 and 24 in Taipei, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday.
However, there is no timetable for negotiations on the proposed trade agreement, as a full report of the feasibility study has not yet been completed, the ministry said, after the Philippine Institute for Development Studies submitted the outline of a feasibility study of a proposed bilateral economic cooperation agreement to the Philippine government on Monday for further discussion.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to