INSURANCE
Taiwan Life to buy Neihu digs
Taiwan Life Insurance Co (台灣人壽保險) on Friday last week reached an agreement with Easy Finder Publishing Ltd (壹本便利出版) to purchase Hong Kong-based Next Digital Ltd’s (壹傳媒) two office buildings and parking space in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) for NT$1.79 billion (US$58.09 million). After the deal is approved by shareholders, Next Digital is to lease back the office buildings that are used by Chinese-language Apple Daily, Next Magazine and Next TV.
COMPUTERS
Micro-Star names new head
Micro-Star International Co (微星), a leading maker of PC motherboards, graphics cards and gaming computers, on Friday last week said its board of directors approved the appointment of executive vice president Chiang Sheng-chang (江勝昌) as the company’s new president and chief executive officer. Chairman and president The new appointment takes effect on Jan. 1, a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
TEXTILES
Wisher sells Chinese shares
Woven fabric and polyester yarn producer Wisher Industrial Co (偉全) on Friday last week said it is selling off its shares in two Chinese subsidiaries, amid worries about rising US-China trade tensions and stricter environmental protection standards in China. Wisher said it would sell all of its shares in Shenglong Textile (Huizhou) Co Ltd (盛龍紡織惠州) and Weiquan Chemical Fibre (Huizhou) Co Ltd (偉全化纖惠州) to Shenzhen Huada Electric Circuit Technology Co Ltd (深圳華大電路科技) with a disposal gain of nearly 100 million yuan (US$14.37 million). Wisher said it would focus its operations at plants in Taoyuan’s Lujhu District (蘆竹) and in Hsinchu County’s Hsinfeng Township (新豐).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the