TECHNOLOGY
PixArt denies buyout rumors
Hsinchu-based chip image sensor maker PixArt Imaging Inc (原相科技) yesterday denied media reports that it would be acquired by an unnamed company after its stock rose by the daily maximum limit in early trade. PixArt’s business focuses mainly on human-machine interface solutions and analysts view the company a beneficiary of the growing demand for wearable devices. In June last year, the firm launched the industry’s smallest heart-rate monitor for smartphones and wearable device platforms. PixArt shares closed up 5.78 percent at NT$82.4 in Taipei trading.
DISPLAYS
Makers post mixed sales
The nation’s two leading flat-panel makers reported mixed sales for last year, despite steady TV panel prices and a falling NT dollar. Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said that consolidated sales rose 1.4 percent to NT$428.7 billion last year from NT$422.7 billion in 2013, with shipments of larger panels increasing 3 percent annually to 141.4 millon units. AU Optronics Corp (友達光電) on Thursday reported that consolidated sales dropped 2 percent to NT$408.18 billion last year, as shipments of large panels were flat at 116.92 million units.
COMPUTERS
Compal posts record sales
Contract laptop maker Compal Electronics Co (仁寶電腦) yesterday reported that its revenue hit NT$246.5 billion last quarter, up 27.4 percent from NT$193.41 billion the previous year and 8.69 percent from the third quarter’s NT$226.79 billion. Bolstered by record sales in the fourth quarter, Compal saw its total revenues for last year reach NT$845.8 billion, an increase of 22.1 percent from the previous year’s NT$692.69 billion. The company shipped 11.6 million laptops in the final quarter, pushing full-year shipments up 10.25 percent to 43 million units.
HEALTH
Swissray sales jump 88%
Medical devices supplier Swissray Global Healthcare Holding Ltd (環瑞醫控股) on Thursday reported revenue of NT$620.25 million for last year, up 88.19 percent from NT$329.59 million in 2013, thanks to strong demand for its X-ray imaging systems in China last year. The company’s eponymous X-ray machines accounted for 30.84 percent of its total sales last year, while Norland bone densitometers contributed 8.25 percent and Novadaq molecular imaging products 5.98 percent, Swissray said. Equipment maintenance revenue accounted for 55.02 percent of its sales last year. The company’s long-term goal is to lower the figure to 30 percent of total sales, chief executive Jack Lee (李典忠) said in November last year.
BANKING
Bank of Taiwan expanding
State-run Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行) yesterday said it had gained approval to open a second branch in China, which will be set up in the financial district of Tianhe in Guangzhou City. The bank entered the Chinese market in the second half of last year, setting up a branch in Shanghai.
AVIATION
EVA wins kudos for safety
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) has been named one of the 10 safest airlines in the world, AirlineRatings.com said in a statement on Tuesday. Qantas was at the top of the list with its fatality-free record in the jet era, AirlineRatings.com said. The other eight top-ranked airlines are Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Finnair, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by