SEMICONDUCTORS
Firm sells set-top box unit
Chipmaker Sunplus Technology Co (凌陽科技) on Tuesday said it would book a gain of NT$325 million (US$10.3 million) from selling its unprofitable set-top box chip unit to Beijing-based Availink Inc (中天聯科) for NT$330 million. As part of the deal, Sunplus is to subscribe to Availink’s new-share issue for NT$295 million, which will give it a 16.67 percent stake in the company, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The set-top-box business unit accounted for 10 to 15 percent of Sunplus’ total revenue last year, but posted a loss of NT$200 million. After the transaction is completed this quarter, Sunplus would lay off some engineers at the set-top-box division and focus on high-margin chips for cars, it said.
COMPUTERS
PC shipments fall 6.3%
PC shipments in the Asia-Pacific market excluding Japan fell by a slower 6.3 percent to 101 million units last year, following a 10.3 percent drop in 2013, International Data Corp (IDC) data showed. In the fourth quarter alone, shipments were flat year-on-year at 25.9 million units, slightly higher than the IDC’s forecasts. Acer Inc (宏碁), whose PC shipments contracted 14 percent year-on-year, accounted for 7.5 percent of the Asia-Pacific market, ranking it fourth. Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), whose shipments edged down 0.7 percent year-on-year, had a market share of 7.3 percent, the fifth best in the region.
TECHNOLOGY
Samsung to use own chips
Samsung Electronics Co is set to use its own microprocessors in the next version of the Galaxy S smartphone, people with direct knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, tested a new version of Qualcomm Inc’s Snapdragon chip, known as the 810, and decided not to use it, the sources said. The new Galaxy S would be equipped with Samsung’s most advanced chips, one of the people said. The South Korean company is trying to become more self-reliant and boost its own processor-making division as it spends US$15 billion on a new factory outside Seoul.
MANUFACTURING
Uni-President outlook ‘solid’
As polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin prices have fallen by 35 percent this year, Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業) is expected to see significant cost savings — especially its China operations — and therefore margin improvement, Barclays Capital Securities Taiwan Ltd said in a note on Tuesday. Along with reduced foreign-exchange risks and potential market share gains in the nation’s fresh milk segment, Uni-President’s profit growth outlook for this year appears solid, Barclays Capital said, reiterating its “overweight” rating on the stock with a price target of NT$64.8.
DISPLAYS
Citigroup bullish on AUO
Citigroup has revised upward its earnings forecasts for AU Optronics Corp (AUO, 友達光電) by between 59 percent and 63 percent for this year and next year, citing the company’s continuous margin expansion. Citigroup Global Markets analyst Arthur Lai (賴昱璋) said in a client note on Tuesday that AUO’s gross margin would rise to 14.8 percent and 15.4 percent this year and next year respectively, while its earnings per share could grow 54 percent year-on-year this year and 13 percent next year, given stronger panel demand leading to higher utilization rates, as well as an improving product mix and greater cost reductions. Citigroup raised its price target to NT$23 from NT$19, with a “buy” rating.
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