ELECTRONICS
HTC shares get boost
Shares of Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Corp (宏達電) were boosted yesterday by renewed hopes for its virtual-reality (VR) business after the company threw an event in Shanghai to demonstrate its efforts to cultivate VR start-ups, dealers said. HTC shares, which have lagged behind other high-tech stocks, as well as the broader market, were also pushed higher by bargain hunters, they said. HTC shares rose 4.6 percent to close at NT$72.8 with 30.06 million shares changing hands on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, where the weighted index closed down 0.02 percent at 10,512.06. “After the weighted index hit a new 27-year high to breach the 10,500-point mark yesterday, the market fell into consolidation mode today,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Kevin Su (蘇俊宏) said yesterday. “So, some investors scrambled to park their funds in individual stocks that had positive leads, like HTC.”
ENTERTAINMENT
IGS-Aristocrat deal ended
International Games System Co (IGS, 鈊象電子), the nation’s largest arcade machines and online game developer, yesterday said that it and Aristocrat Leisure Ltd, at Aristocrat’s request, have terminated an agreement to codevelop slot machines, due to fast-changing industry dynamics that prompted the Australian company to alter its strategy. Aristocrat’s authorized games are to be removed from a gaming platform on the IGS Web site at the end of next month, IGS said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. IGS is to rename the gaming platform and supply IGS-developed games on the platform to maintain its service, the Taiwanese company said. The terminated collaboration with Aristocrat is expected to reduce IGS’ revenue by NT$28 million (US922,844), or operating income of NT$7 million, on a monthly basis in the second half of this year, IGS said.
SECURITIES
Taishin merger approved
The Financial Supervisory Commission yesterday approved the merger of Taishin Securities Co (台新證券) and Ta Chong Securities Co Ltd (大眾證券). Taishin Securities, the acquiring company, is to absorb Ta Chong Securities, which will cease to exist after the deal is completed. The deal would help Taishin Securities raise its market share from 0.59 percent to 1.29 percent, while its number of service locations would rise from 14 to 17, the commission said.
MACHINERY
Hiwin laments work policy
Hiwin Technologies Co (上銀科技) chairman Eric Chuo (卓永財) yesterday criticized the government’s “one fixed day off, one flexible day off” policy, saying that it significantly increases enterprises’ operational costs. Citing the regulations, Chuo said that the machinery maker has to pay employees three times their daily salary if they are to work on Sundays and offer them days off for working on the fixed day off. “There’s no such policy elsewhere in the world. This [policy] is not feasible,” Chuo told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting in Taichung.
RESTAURANTS
Hai Di Lao move approved
The Investment Commission yesterday approved Hai Di Lao Holdings Pte Ltd (海底撈), a popular Chinese hotpot restaurant chain operator, to invest NT$115 million in expanding its operational scope in Taiwan. The commission said Hai Di Lao plans to utilize the fund to add a new restaurant in Hsinchu, which would be the firm’s third in the nation.
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