SPORTS
Acer acquires Xplova
Acer Inc (宏碁) yesterday said it has acquired renowned GPS cycling computer brand Xplova in a bid to expand its reach in the sports industry. The Taiwanese company said in a statement that it will integrate Xplova’s technology with its hardware, software and services. The two sides also have plans to tap into China’s huge cycling industry with cloud-enabled sports services, the statement said. Acer chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) said Xplova has 15,000 members, who have uploaded 200,000 pieces of data and planned more than 52,000 cycling routes. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, but said it acquired Taipei-based Xplova through the Acer e-Enabling Service Business Inc, under the eBusiness Business Group.
IC SUPPLIERS
Parade starts share buyback
Parade Technologies Ltd (譜瑞), a leading display and interface integrated circuit supplier, plans to buy back 1 million of its shares on the open market, or 1.32 percent of outstanding stock, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday. Parade said the share buyback would begin today and run through Nov. 2. It plans to repurchase the shares at between NT$172 and NT$365.5 per share, the filing showed. Parade shares ended 9.84 percent higher at NT$245.5 yesterday.
SHIPPING
Wisdom eyes US$6.5m gain
Wisdom Marine Group (慧洋海運集團), one of the nation’s listed bulk shippers, yesterday said it would book a gain of US$6.5 million this month by selling a new 81,600-dwt (deadweight tonnes) bulk vessel to a European client. The company booked a gain of US$5 million last month through the sale of another 84,000-dwt ship. Wisdom, which has a fleet of 107 vessels, saw pretax profit grow 42.91 percent year-on-year to NT$1.499 billion in the first eight months of the year, with earnings per share of NT$3.07. The company said it plans to sell another new vessel this year to generate more profit.
IC SUPPLIERS
FocalTech gets buyback nod
FocalTech Systems Co (敦泰電子), which makes driver ICs for touchpanels, yesterday said its board approved a plan to buy back as many as 5 million shares on the open market from today until Nov. 2 after its share price recently fell below net value. Shares closed at NT$24.4 yesterday. FocalTech plans to repurchase shares at prices between NT$17.01 and NT$35.13 per share. The size of the share buyback equals 1.2 percent of total shares, and FocalTech plans to distribute those shares to employees after completing the repurchase as part of an incentive program, the company said in a statement.
AVIATION
TransAsia expands fleet
TransAsia Airways (復興航空) on Tuesday said it would add six new aircraft to its fleet this quarter, in a bid to improve flight safety, service and reduce environmental impact. The new purchase is comprised of two Airbus A321s and two A330 jets for the carrier’s international and cross-strait routes, and two leased ATR-72-600 turboprop aircraft for its domestic routes. The new aircraft will bring TransAsia’s average fleet age down four years from 6.34 years as of the end of last month, the company said. TransAsia is also slated to receive four A330-800neo jets in 2019, it said. The company did not provide cost figures for the purchases.
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
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],”