ELECTRONICS
HTC announces pay raises
HTC Corp (宏達電) has decided to raise wages in a bid to retain employees, despite posting steady losses. The company did not disclose details on the wage hike, but it said that raises would be merit-based and retroactive to January. Local media earlier last week reported that HTC raised wages for employees in its virtual reality (VR) operation by up to 10 percent, starting from this month, which would benefit about 1,000 workers. However, HTC on Thursday said that the pay hike was not limited to the VR division.
TAIPEI EXCHANGE
Five stocks downgraded
The over-the-counter Taipei Exchange has downgraded five companies to the “full delivery” category beginning today, including United Alloy-Tech Co (精確), E-Ton Solar Tech Co (益通), Jhen Vei Electronic Co (振維), PChomestore Inc (商店街) and ENG Electric Co (英格爾). The downgrade means that shares cannot be sold short or traded on margin, as their net value has fallen below the regulatory requirement of NT$5 per share. The exchange is to impose periodic call auction trading on PChomestore and ENG Electric, with matching operations to be conducted every 30 minutes using a manually controlled system.
TELEVISON
Eastern Media cuts capital
Eastern Media International Corp (東森國際), the owner of the nation’s two biggest TV shopping channels, has decided to cut its capitalization by NT$1.39 billion, or 20 percent, to adjust its capital structure and return NT$2 in cash per share to stockholders. The capital reduction, which is subject to approval at a shareholders’ meeting on May 17, would see the company’s paid-in capital drop to NT$5.57 billion from NT$6.96 billion.
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
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
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