Integrated circuit (IC) designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Saturday announced plans to hand out about NT$160 million (US$5.32 million) in bonuses to employees.
At the company’s annual sports day, which is also the firm’s annual family day and its 20th anniversary celebration, MediaTek chairman and co-chief executive officer Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介) said every employee formally hired before Sept. 30 is to receive a bonus of NT$10,000.
About 16,000 employees are eligible for the sports day bonus, the company said.
As with some other high-tech firms in Taiwan, MediaTek traditionally announces a cash gift to employees on its sports day to supplement year-end and quarterly bonuses and to show gratitude to employees for their hard work.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) announced on its sports day on Nov. 4 that it would pay about NT$456 million in bonuses to its employees, with each of its 38,000 employees receiving a NT$12,000 bonus.
MediaTek shares on Friday closed 2.81 percent higher at NT$329.5.
The stock has risen more than 40 percent since June, when Rick Tsai (蔡力行) joined the company as co-CEO. The company’s market capitalization has also expanded by about NT$157 billion over the period.
Tsai Ming-kai praised Rick Tsai’s performance-driven managerial style and said the dual-leadership model looks positive for the company, but he declined to score his co-CEO’s performance, saying it is too soon to judge.
Asked about market speculation that MediaTek might join Apple Inc’s supply chain to design processors for next-generation iPhones and iPads, Tsai Ming-kai said that MediaTek does not comment on specific clients, but the company strives to gain orders from all clients.
Regarding Broadcom Ltd’s bid to take over Qualcomm Inc, he said industrial consolidation is a trend and would affect every player in the market, but it is hard to see what changes might happen in the short term.
Speaking to employees on sports day, Tsai Ming-kai said he is grateful for their contributions to the success of the company, as well as the support of their families.
Initially, MediaTek had about 20 to 30 employees, but now the company has grown into one of the top three IC designers in the world, Tsai said.
MediaTek has decided to establish a kindergarten, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2019, he said.
Adding the kindergarten facility will enable employees to feel more comfortable working at the IC designer, while the company will no doubt grow with the employees and their children, Tsai added.
In the third quarter, MediaTek posted NT$5.06 billion in net profit, up 129 percent from the previous quarter, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$3.26, compared with NT$1.51 a quarter earlier. On an annual basis, net profit fell 35.4 percent.
The company on Oct. 31 forecast that revenue this quarter would stand between NT$59.2 billion and NT$64.3 billion, a quarterly decline of 7 percent to an increase of 1 percent respectively from NT$63.65 billion last quarter, while shipments of processors used in smartphones and tablets are to remain unchanged from last quarter to this quarter at between 110 million and 120 million units.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) on Nov. 1 predicted MediaTek’s EPS would decline to NT$2.6 this quarter with lower sales and year-end operating expenses on the books.
For the whole year, EPS is likely to reach NT$11.5, it said.
Additional reporting by Lisa Wang and staff writer
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],”