PHARMACEUTICALS
TTY shares drop near limit
Shares of drug maker TTY Biopharm Co (台灣東洋藥品) fell close to the maximum daily limit of 7 percent to NT$68.40 yesterday following a search by Taipei prosecutors on Wednesday of former chairman Lin Rong-jin’s (林榮錦) residence over embezzlement allegations. Prosecutors also searched the offices of Center Laboratories Inc (晟德) and two other companies run by Lin, who stepped down as TTY chairman in June last year. Lin is accused of embezzling NT$400 million (US$12.49 million) from 2009 to last year through dubious patent transactions which caused damage to TTY, the Chinese-language Liberty Times reported yesterday.
INTERNET
CyberLink touts new app
CyberLink Corp (訊連科技), the maker of the PhotoDirector suite of editing tools, on Wednesday set an upbeat target for its new messaging app as part of its efforts to diversify its mobile business. CyberLink chairman Jau Huang (黃肇雄) said he hopes U messenger, launched last month, would reach 10 million downloads worldwide in the next three years. The app has seen 100,000 downloads so far, he said. Popular messaging app Line took a little more than a year to reach 50 million downloads, while Twitter took three years and Facebook a little more than three-and-a-half years.
CHIPMAKERS
Winbond sees annual growth
Memory chipmaker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) yesterday said that its consolidated revenue of NT$3.14 billion last month represented a rise of 17.03 percent year-on-year, but a decrease of 2.59 percent month-on-month. While Winbond’s revenue for last quarter dropped 3.68 percent from the previous quarter due to seasonally weak demand, the firm’s total revenue for last year grew 14.65 percent from 2013 to reach NT$37.99 — its highest in four years. Specialty DRAM chips are Winbond’s biggest revenue source, providing more than 50 percent of its overall revenue last year.
Semiconductors
Hermes posts solid growth
Semiconductor equipment maker Hermes Microvision Inc (HMI, 漢微科) on Wednesday reported solid growth in sales last month, driving its total sales for last year up 35 percent from 2013 to NT$7.21 billion. Consolidated sales rose to NT$1.59 billion last month, Hermes Microvision said in a stock exchange filing. That was 137 percent higher than a year earlier, a 104 percent increase month-on-month and the highest in the company’s history. The company’s sales for this quarter might decline 32 percent from last quarter due to decreasing orders from Samsung Electronics Co and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Deutsche Bank said in a note.
Chipmakers
Novatek sees record sales
Novatek Microelectronics Corp (聯詠), the nation’s biggest supplier of driver ICs for LCD panels, on Wednesday said sales for last quarter beat the company’s guidance, lifting its full-year revenue to a record level. Consolidated sales were NT$15.108 billion in the October-to-December quarter, 1.13 percent lower than the previous quarter. However, the figure still beat the company’s forecast of between NT$14.5 billion and NT$14.9 billion, which Novatek attributed to gains in market share and solid demand for its new products during the slow season. For the whole of last year, the company’s consolidated sales hit a record level of NT$54.066 billion, up 30.44 percent year-on-year, Novatek said.
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