SLOWDOWN: New products, such as bluetooth and GPS chips, may lift handset sales, but lackluster demand for consumer electronics would affect sales, the company said
By Lisa Wang
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation's top handset chip designer, warned yesterday that revenues may fall 10 percent to 12 percent in the current quarter from last quarter's record- high figure as weakening demand for consumer electronics, including digital TVs, offsets growth in handset sales.

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GROWTH DRIVERS: The Taishin executive urged the government to ease curbs to facilitate the free flow of people and capital to allow Taipei to catch up with its peers
By Joyce Huang
Should the nation's deregulation accelerate, Taipei has the potential to outperform Shanghai and Tokyo by 2012 to become a regional financial center, Greg Gibb, chief operations officer at Taishin Financial Holding Co (台新金控), said in a keynote speech yesterday.

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By Mo Yan-chih and Ko Shu-ling
The World Economic Forum's latest global competitiveness survey, in which Taiwan's ranking dropped one notch from last year, received a mixed reaction from government officials and opposition lawmakers yesterday.

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By Joyce Huang
Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), the nation's biggest financial service company by assets, yesterday said its third-quarter profit grew 15 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$12.3 billion (US$380 million).

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By Joyce Huang
Following the US subprime crisis, 13 of the nation's 39 banks posted a total of NT$4 billion (US$123.5 million) in impaired assets from their NT$21.8 billion investment in structured-investment vehicles (SIVs) as of Oct. 25, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said yesterday.

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SUNNY DAYS: On average, solar shares increased 0.39 percent yesterday, outperforming a 0.78-percent drop in the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market index
By Jessie Ho
Shares in solar cell makers soared yesterday after oil prices continued breaking records on global markets in the wake of the latest industry figures showing a surprise fall in US crude reserves.

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GROWTH SPURT: Starbucks opened its first China store in Beijing's China World Hotel mall in 1999 and has 300 stores there, with plans for 80 more over the next year
Starbucks has come a long way in making itself a household name in China -- a nation of tea drinkers -- creating a "coffee house" niche where none existed.

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Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), the world's second-largest maker of notebook computers, said fourth-quarter laptop sales would rise more than 10 percent from the previous three months.

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