ENTERTAINMENT
HIM licensing revenue up
Record label HIM International Music Inc (華研音樂) yesterday said its licensing revenue is forecast to account for 30 percent of its total revenue this year, up from 25 percent last year, as the company expands its music licensing cooperation with China’s Xiaomi Corp (小米) and TTPod music player (天天動聽), subsidiaries of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴). On the back of increases in licensing fees and concert sales, the company’s revenue this year might climb from last year’s NT$960 million (US$31.29 million), HIM general manager Linda Ho (何燕玲) said at a Taipei Exchange (TPEx, 櫃檯買賣中心) conference. In the first quarter, the company reported a net income of NT$35.4 million, or NT$1.1 per share, with revenue of NT$201 million and gross margin of 50 percent.
TECHNOLOGY
Bizlink eyes sales growth
BizLink Holding Inc (貿聯) yesterday said a diversified product mix would help the firm mitigate seasonal factors in the first half of the year and that it expects sales to achieve double-digit percentage growth this year from last year’s NT$7.48 billion, following new product launches in the second half. BizLink, which supplies wire harnesses to Tesla Motors Inc, also produces cable assemblies and connectors for various back-end applications. The company said new Type-C connectors are another catalyst for sales in the second half, when it is to start mass production of related applications, such as dongles and docking stations.
TECHNOLOGY
Brogent dividend approved
Visual effects production company Brogent Technologies Inc (智崴科技) yesterday said shareholders approved the company’s proposal to distribute a cash dividend of NT$2 per share and stock dividend of 10 percent this year, after the company earned NT$6.83 per share last year. Brogent, which specializes in software and hardware integration to develop proprietary media-based indoor attractions, reported a net loss of NT$1.73 million in the first quarter, mainly due to foreign exchange losses. However, the company is optimistic about this year’s outlook, saying that its simulator rides have started to draw global entertainment clients, while the planned opening of Shang Shun World (尚順育樂中心) in Miaoli County this summer would also provide greater exposure for its other entertainment-related products.
AVIATION
EVA, SF Airlines pen pact
EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-largest carrier, and its subsidiary Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corp (長榮航太科技), yesterday signed strategic agreements with China’s SF Airlines Co (順豐航空) as the parties aim to expand business cooperation in both cargo transportation and aircraft maintenance businesses, a joint statement said. EVA said it expects more cooperation with SF Airlines in the future, related to exchange of shipping space, cabin chartering or joint operations.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
Hotel opens burger outlet
Ambassador Hotel Ltd (國賓大飯店), which operates four hotels under two brands and several restaurants in Taiwan, yesterday opened its first burger outlet, Burger Fix, in Taipei. The eatery, featuring quality beef supplied from Ambassador Hotel’s A Cut Steakhouse, expects average customer spending of about NT$250, the company said. A second outlet is to be launched in a Taipei mall by the end of this year, it 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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts