ELECTRONICS
FTC approves Hon Hai deal
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday approved Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) investment in Japan’s Sharp Corp for a controlling stake. The commission said it sees no signs of monopoly in the global electronics manufacturing service market after Hon Hai and its 100 percent owned Foxconn (Far East) Ltd announced they would jointly hold a 44.55 percent stake in Sharp. The commission said it welcomed the deal as it would help boost Hon Hai’s research and development capability, while driving the growth in the local supply chain. According to an agreement Hon Hai signed with Sharp in March, the Taiwanese firm’s metal casing subsidiary, Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準), is to have a 13 percent stake in Sharp, while Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) is to hold an 8.45 percent stake via his LCD plant in Sakai, Japan. The commission’s green light came a day after the Investment Commission granted its approval to the ¥388.8 billion (US$3.5 billion) investment.
ENTERTAINMENT
DMG tie-up to continue
Eastern Media International Corp (東森國際) yesterday said it plans to extend an agreement with DMG Entertainment for six months to the end of the year to sell its shares of Eastern Broadcasting Co (EBC, 東森電視台). An agreement with Los Angeles-based DMG signed in December last year was to expire on Tuesday, but local regulators, including the National Communication Commission and the Investment Commission, had not approved the deal. In December last year, Eastern Media and EBC’s largest shareholder, Carlyle Group, agreed to sell their shares to DMG Entertainment for NT$18.3 billion (US$561 million). The transaction is the largest in the nation’s cable TV sector in two years.
FINANCE
GDP growth weak: report
The central bank on Tuesday said in its annual financial stability report that it has seen notably weakened GDP growth momentum, despite still lukewarm inflation. The report said deceleration in China’s GDP growth and a further downward revision of global GDP growth would bring a high possibility of another interest rate cut at the bank’s quarterly board meeting this month. “The central bank is expected to cut interest rates by 12.5 basis points on June 23 with the discount rate dropping to 1.375 percent,” Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said in a note to clients. The central bank reiterated that despite a slowing economy, the financial system remains stable.
AVIATION
Seoul route inaugurated
Mandarin Airlines (華信航空), a subsidiary of China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), formally inaugurated its seven weekly services from Taipei to Seoul yesterday, with its maiden flight taking off from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 7:25am. Mandarin president Roger Han (韓梁中) said the service carried a great deal of significance, as it is the airline’s first international route from Taoyuan airport apart from its flights across the Taiwan Strait. From this month, Mandarin Airlines is to operate 50 weekly fights from Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung to Seoul, Han said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the opening of the route. The number is to increase to 54 next month to offer passengers traveling between the two nations a convenient option, he added.
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
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day