Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is helping its Japanese subsidiary, Sharp Corp, return to the PC market by purchasing Toshiba’s PC operations, the Nikkei Asian Review said yesterday.
In a report on its Web site, the Japanese newspaper said that Sharp was considering buying Toshiba’s struggling PC operations, including its Dynabook laptop brand.
Citing unnamed sources, the report said that the two Japanese companies are in working-level talks for a proposed deal of about ¥10 billion (US$9.58 billion).
Hon Hai, known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) outside of Taiwan, is playing a critical role in Sharp’s efforts to get back into the PC business, the report said.
Before Sharp withdrew from the PC market in 2010, it was making computers under the Mebius brand, along with other devices, but its bottom line was shrinking, the report said.
Since Hon Hai acquired a 66 percent stake in Sharp in 2016, electronic devices have become the strongest area of synergy between the two companies, the report said, citing Sharp president and chief executive officer Tai Jeng-wu (戴正吳).
As the world’s largest contract electronics maker, Hon Hai builds computers for brands like HP Inc and Dell Inc, and has the expertise and procurement networks to efficiently manufacture large volumes of products, the report said.
Meanwhile, Sharp is good at small and mid-size LCD panels for gadgets, such as computers and smartphones, it said.
Sharp has also been putting great effort into penetrating the TV and smartphone markets, and reached its goal of selling about 10 million TVs last year, the report said, citing Tai.
Toshiba’s PC business incurred an operating loss of ¥500 million in fiscal 2016 on revenue of ¥191.8 billion, as the company faced stiff competition from rivals in Taiwan, China and elsewhere, it said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last