SEMICONDUCTORS
Siliconware ADRs up 24.13%
American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan-based integrated circuit packaging and testing services provider Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) jumped 24.13 percent on Wall Street overnight in the wake of an acquisition plan proposed by rival Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體). ASE’s ADRs added 5.33 percent amid hopes that such a tie-up will further burnish the suitor’s global standing. ASE ranks as the world’s largest IC packaging and testing services provider and SPIL, the third-largest.
CHINA
US presses for reforms
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew pressed the country to continue with economic and financial reforms on Friday in the wake of Beijing’s surprise devaluation of the yuan last week. Lew told Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang (汪洋) in a telephone conversation that it is critical the country continue with reforms that are necessary to move toward an economy driven primarily by household consumption rather than exports, which is in both countries’ best interests, according to a US Department of Treasury account of the call.
INTERNET
Google-Twitter deal extended
Google Inc and Twitter Inc on Friday announced their partnership placing tweets in online search results has been extended to desktop. Confirmation came in a tweeted exchange between the two US tech firms. “Hey @twitter, Search party at our place. Meet us on desktop?” Google said, to which Twitter replied: “You got it, @google. We’ll bring the Tweets.” The tie-up could help boost engagement at Twitter.
CASINOS
Ceasars, lenders reach deal
Caesars Entertainment Corp on Friday said that it had a deal with the most-senior lenders to its bankrupt unit, allowing the casino operator to focus on getting support from the last major group holding out on its restructuring plan. Caesars and its main operating subsidiary, the bankrupt Caesars Entertainment Operating Co, got lenders to agree to the reorganization plan to turn the operating unit into a real-estate investment trust from the two most-senior creditor groups, which own about US$12 billion in obligations.
GREECE
Hellas suspension slammed
The government is accusing a Canadian-run mining firm of holding the 2,000 workers in its northern Greek mines “hostage” in a dispute over alleged violations of concession terms. Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold’s Greek subsidiary, Hellas Gold, has said it will suspend most of its employees in the country for up to three months, after the government halted work at a mine in Halkidiki. It said it would have to fire workers if the permits are not reinstated.
SOFTWARE
Vision mulls selling unit
Vision Critical Communications Inc is weighing the sale of its consulting business ahead of a possible initial public offering by the Canadian marketing software firm, according to people familiar with the process. Selling the unit would make Vision Critical a pure-play cloud software company that might prove more attractive to investors if it went public, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in