TECHNOLOGY
Innolux to restructure
Innolux Corp (群創) yesterday said it is launching an organizational restructuring program to cope with parent company Hon Hai Group’s (鴻海集團) acquisition of Japan’s Sharp Corp. The restructuring efforts also aim to cope with its recovery from a strong earthquake that disrupted its production lines in Tainan in February. Innolux, the nation’s biggest LCD panel supplier, is to disclose detailed restructuring efforts at an annual shareholders’ meeting on June 24. The company said it would not hold an investors’ conference for the first quarter, but is scheduled to release first-quarter financial results on May 14.
ELECTRONICS
Pegatron board to expand
Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it has gained shareholders’ approval to increase the number of the board members from nine to 13 at most. Pegatron current board members include premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) and outgoing vice chairman Ted Hsu (徐世昌). Pegatron chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢) said the company plans to promote some higher-ranking employees to the board as an opportunity to discover unexplored potential. Tung said the company would file with the Taiwan Stock Exchange to officially nominate board candidates in the next three or four days.
AQUISITIONS
Flytech to buy Box Tech
Flytech Technology Co (飛捷科技), one of the nation’s leading point-of-sale (POS) system manufacturers, yesterday said its board has approved a plan to acquire UK-based Box Technologies Ltd for £12 million (US$17.26 million). Flytech said the deal to purchase 100 percent of the UK firm’s shares would help it to expand its business presence in the UK and northern Europe. Flytech also produces medical panel PCs. The company has forecast a double-digit growth in sales of POS and panel PCs this year from last year. The company’s total sales last year grew 9.8 percent annually to NT$5.2 billion (US$161.25 million), while net income increased 6 percent to NT$1.02 billion.
TOURISM
Machines to aid tourists
Electronic machines designed to issue value-added tax (VAT) refunds to foreign visitors are to go into operation at nine airports and seven seaports on May 1 to eliminate the need for foreign travelers to line up to obtain the refunds, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The electronic transactions are to be handled by Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), which is to charge a transaction fee of 14 percent, the ministry said, adding that the period for claiming VAT refunds is also to be extended from 30 to 90 days.
COMMUNICATIONS
App revenues to increase
Global mobile app revenue is likely to grow by 2.2 times over the next five years, from US$36 billion last year to US$79 billion in 2020, according to global analyst firm Ovum. The number of app downloads is expected to increase 1.8 times from 211 billion last year to 378 billion in 2020, Ovum said in a statement yesterday. Guillermo Escofet, principal analyst in Ovum’s digital media team, said that downloads would see a marked slowdown in mature smartphone markets as they approach saturation and as user acquisition costs escalate, while revenue would continue on a higher growth trajectory as people spend more time on apps and as in-app spending intensifies.
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],”