PATENTS
Taiwan, Japan to sign MOUs
Taiwan and Japan are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on patent examination cooperation at the two-day Taiwan-Japan Economic and Trade Conference that opened in Tokyo yesterday. The memorandum is expected to be signed today, a source familiar with the matter told reporters. Three more MOUs are also expected to be signed, but the details of the pacts could not be disclosed yesterday, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Taiwan Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) is attending the closed-door meeting.
CHIPMAKERS
Elan reports record profit
Touch-panel controller chipmaker Elan Microelectronics Corp (義隆電) yesterday reported record third-quarter net profit of NT$677 million (US$22.18 million), up 43.4 percent from a year earlier, as strong end-market demand boosted its revenue and margins. Earnings per share (EPS) were NT$2.35. Third-quarter revenue hit NT$2.71 billion, the highest in the company’s history, while gross margin improved to 47.4 percent and operating margin rose to 24 percent, both better than expected. In the first three quarters of the year, Elan reported EPS of NT$5.2. The company said its business performance this quarter could be better than the seasonal pattern, but declined to offer exact figures.
RETAIL
Momo’s profit falls 14.32%
TV and online retailer Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) yesterday reported net profit of NT$267 million for last quarter, down 14.32 percent from NT$311 million in the same quarter last year. EPS was NT$1.91, it said. Momo did not provide an explanation for the decrease, but third-quarter revenue hit a record NT$12.37 billion, a 26.1 percent increase on an annual basis. Momo said the rise in revenue was due to services provided through its partnership with Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and various promotions on its online platforms.
ELECTRONICS
HTC partners with university
HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said it plans to build a technological arena in cooperation with National Quemoy University, making the Kinmen-based school the first of the nation’s higher education institutions to have an arena for e-sports events. The arena would also offer virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality experiences, HTC said. The company already operates Viveland VR Theme Parks in Taiwan, Hong Kong, India and the Middle East. Last week, HTC partnered with the Louvre Museum in Paris to offer visitors a VR experience of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
INTERNET
No IPO yet for ByteDance
TikTok owner ByteDance Inc (字節跳動) is focused on hiring staff to beef up its international operations before considering an initial public offering (IPO) in the US or Hong Kong, people familiar with the matter said yesterday. The world’s most valuable start-up is still only at the very early stages of exploring a share sale abroad, they said. A float remains a long-term objective, given that ByteDance first needs to hire a chief financial officer and remains well-funded, the people said, asking not to be named because the matter is private. The company yesterday denied the Financial Times’ report that it was planning a Hong Kong IPO in the first quarter of next year. The newspaper had cited two people briefed on plans.
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