The Investment Commission yesterday said it would ask DMG Entertainment executive officer Dan Mintz to submit further documents detailing his firm’s plan to buy a NT$18.3 billion (US$553.96 million) stake in Eastern Broadcasting Co (EBC, 東森電視台).
“The commission is not satisfied with Mintz’s account of his funding sources. We will officially inform him of our request before Friday,” Investment Commission Executive Secretary Emile Chang (張銘斌) told the Taipei Times.
Mintz and Carlyle Group — the largest of EBC’s shareholders — on Tuesday last week filed applications to the commission detailing Mintz’s planned purchase of about an 82 percent stake in EBC.
The stake comprises of Carlyle’s 61 percent stake and Eastern Media International Corp’s (東森國際) 21 percent stake in EBC.
Based on a preliminary review of the documents provided, Chang said Mintz filed his application in the name of his newly established company in the Cayman Islands, adding that the company seemed to have been set up as a vehicle for the planned EBC investment.
However, the application does not contain detailed information regarding the background or operations of Mintz’s new firm, Chang said.
“Given DMG’s close ties with China, Mintz needs to provide the commission with more details about the background of his new company, the sources of his funding and his relationship with China. The commission would not begin an official review of the case before it has received the additional documents,” Chang said.
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
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six