TELECOMS
Gemtek forecasts 40-60 split
Telecom equipment maker Gemtek Technology Co (正文) yesterday guided its full-year sales split to be 40-60 for the first and second halves of this year, as the company is shifting its focus on cloud-computing-related businesses. Consolidated sales for last year fell 0.87 percent to NT$17.53 billion (US$536.17 million) from a year earlier, with a net profit of NT$206 million, or NT$0.69 per share, Gemtek said. Apart from cloud-based solutions, wireless broadband products, long-term evolution-enabled items and equipment support for G-fast technology are expected to drive the company’s sales growth this year, Gemtek chairman Howard Chen (陳鴻文) said.
FINANCE
Mega chairman resigns
State-run Mega Financial Holding Co (兆豐金控) yesterday said that chairman Mckinney Tsai (蔡友才) has tendered his resignation and is to leave the post on Friday. Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) confirmed that Tsai had expressed his intention to leave the post about six months ago due to personal reasons, the Central News Agency reported. Chang said Mega Financial president Wu Hann-ching (吳漢卿) will take over management of the company until a new chairman is chosen by the incoming government after May 20.
INSURANCE
Taiwan Fire & Marine fined
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday fined Taiwan Fire & Marine Insurance Co (台灣產物保險) NT$4.8 million for irregularities in the company’s internal control mechanisms. The commission also decided to suspend the insurer’s sales of fire insurance to commercial users for one month beginning on April 15.
FINANCE
KD to continue ‘green’ focus
Investment holding company KD Holding Corp (崑鼎) yesterday said it would continue focusing on environmental protection, green energy and renewable energy businesses this year, hoping its total sales would be higher than last year’s NT$4.08 billion. The company said it also plans to invest in overseas markets, including China, Malaysia and India. The company reported a net profit of NT$710 million for last year, up 4.6 percent year-on-year, with earnings per share of NT$10.84.
ONLINE GAMES
X-Legend sales down
Online game publisher X-Legend Entertainment Co (傳奇網路) yesterday reported a net profit of NT$30 million for last year, with earnings per share of NT$0.27, the lowest in five years. Annual sales for last year decreased 15.92 percent to NT$1.24 billion, due to flat sales of new products and declining contribution from royalties. The company’s board on Monday approved a plan to pay a cash dividend of NT$0.25 per share, which is to be subject to a shareholder approval on June 22.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Inotera plan approved
Shareholders of Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a DRAM joint venture between Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Micron Technology Inc, yesterday approved plans to sell Nanya’s 24 percent holding in the company to Micron in a deal worth NT$132.5 billion. The transaction is expected to be completed in the middle of this year. Inotera will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Micron and will be delisted from the local stock market. Inotera’s board yesterday also approved a budget of NT$6.1 billion on developing 20-nanometer process technology.
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],”