nNanya replaces Elpida as No. 5
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) replaced Japan's Elpida Memory Inc last year as the world's fifth-largest supplier of computer-memory chips, market researcher International Data Corp said.
Nanya, Taiwan's biggest memory-chip maker, boosted sales last year by producing new high-speed semiconductors ahead of its rivals, IDC analyst S.K. Kim said. It was one of the first companies to produce chips that speed the operation of personal computers using Intel Corp's newest processors, he said.
Elpida, a venture between NEC Corp and Hitachi Ltd, was struggling to increase capacity, he said.
"Elpida didn't have enough money to upgrade its production equipment," Kim said. "The company's capacity suffered."
IDC said a new semiconductor plant Nanya agreed to invest in last year with Germany's Infineon Technologies AG, the world's fourth-largest memory-chip maker, will probably help it keep the No. 5 position this year.
The plant may help increase Infineon's share of the global market to 20 percent and Nanya's to 10 percent by the end of this year, according to the companies.
Nanya and Elpida will have similar market shares, IDC said.
Kimo, Yam reach agreement
Yahoo-Kimo (雅虎奇摩), Taiwan's biggest Internet portal, and Yam.com (蕃薯藤), the third largest, yesterday reached an agreement to settle a plagiarism dispute between the two, with Yahoo-Kimo formally apologizing for the mistake it made two years ago.
The clash between the two local Web giants first occurred in April, with Yam accusing Yahoo-Kimo of copying articles in its "What's new today" online section.
According to the charges, the majority of articles published by Yam between March 29 and April 17 of that year were almost identical in content, wording and phrasing to those used by Yahoo-Kimo.
Details of the settlement are not disclosed, the two companies said in a statement. But Yahoo-Kimo said it will strengthen its effort to educate employees' knowledge with regards to the protection of intellectual property right, as well as its managerial control over the portal content production, in an effort to prevent the inappropriate practices from happening again.
PC Home Online (網路家庭), the nation's second largest Internet portal, also filed a lawsuit in the Taipei District Court in March 2002, accusing Yahoo-Kimo of plagiarizing its online content.
Taiwan to cooperate on Internet
Taiwan is willing to cooperate with other Asia-Pacific nations to develop Internet technology and services, Premier Yu Shyi-kun said Wednesday at the 2003 Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) presently being held in Taipei.
Noting that Taiwan is the world's fourth largest information technology hardware producer in terms of output, Yu stressed that it has a solid foundation for developing Internet technology and services.
To boost Internet development, the government established an ad hoc task force in April 2001 to pushing ahead with a"digital Taiwan" program that has been listed in the "Challenge 2008" six-year national development plan, Yu said.
Taiwan hopes to improve the compatibility of Internet technology products of the nations in the region through a joint effort among them, he continued.
NT dollar rises
The New Taiwan dollar yesterday traded lower against its US counterpart, dropping NT$0.044 to close at NT$34.784 on the Taipei foreign exchange market.
Turnover was US$330 million, compared with the previous day's US$470 million.
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