United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) Chairman Robert Tsao (曹興誠) yesterday criticized his bigger rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) Chairman Morris Chang (張忠謀), for the latter's recent change in attitude toward a stock bonus scheme.
In a speech delivered at the 2004 Taiwan Venture Forum yesterday, Tsao said the stock bonus scheme is a proven system that helps the nation's high-tech companies hold onto their employees.
PHOTO: CNA
But there are concerns by investors and regulators that excluding such grants as a cost allows companies to inflate their profits while hurting return on equity. Still, Tsao defended the scheme as the best solution to attain a lower employee turnover rate.
In late October, Chang said that the expenses incurred by stock bonuses do place a burden on earnings and could distort a company's bottom line. He said that TSMC was still seeking a better solution to retain talented employees and safeguard shareholders' interests.
As a result, TSMC said last week that its board was proposing a revised stock dividend policy, calling for future dividend distributions to be made preferably by way of cash.
Stock dividends won't exceed 50 percent of the total distribution, the company said in a statement.
But Tsao yesterday raised doubts about Chang's stewardship. He said that stock bonuses should be granted to rank-and-file employees instead of senior level management, but as far as he knew Chang received the majority of TSMC's dividend distribution.
"TSMC and Morris Chang are the biggest beneficiaries of the stock bonus scheme, and we believe that he should come out to defend the system. But he hasn't," Tsao said.
"After he [Chang] criticized the system ... we thought he might cancel the grants. But in contrast, he worked to issue the dividend, with himself receiving the greatest amount. Therefore, I question his credibility," Tsao said.
The new rules requiring firms to count stock bonuses as part of their costs, are expected to be implemented next year, a Chinese-language business daily reported last month, citing unidentified government officials.
PRICE HIKES: The war in the Middle East would not significantly disrupt supply in the short term, but semiconductor companies are facing price surges for materials Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are not facing imminent supply disruptions of essential chemicals or raw materials due to the war in the Middle East, but surges in material costs loom large, industry association SEMI Taiwan said yesterday. The association’s comments came amid growing concerns that supplies of helium and other key raw materials used in semiconductor production could become a choke point after Qatar shut down its liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and helium output earlier this month due to the conflict. Qatar is the second-largest LNG supplier in the world and accounts for about 33 percent of global helium output. Helium is
DOMESTIC COMPONENT: Huang identified several Taiwanese partners to be a key part of Nvidia’s Vera Rubin supply chain, including Asustek, Hon Hai and Wistron Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), addressing crowds at the company’s biggest annual event, unveiled a variety of new products while predicting that its flagship artificial intelligence (AI) processors would help generate US$1 trillion in sales through next year. During a two-and-a-half-hour keynote address, Huang announced plans to push deeper into central processing units (CPUs) — Intel Corp’s home turf — and introduced semiconductors made with technology acquired from start-up Groq Inc. The company even said it was developing chips for data centers in outer space. At the heart of Huang’s speech was the message that demand for computing power
OPTIMISTIC: Inflation still has a chance of remaining below the central bank’s 2 percent alert level, as Taiwan’s economy is resilient with healthy exports, the NDC minister said Taiwan’s inflation could exceed 2 percent this year if oil prices continue to surge amid escalating tensions in the Middle East, prompting the government to reassess its economic outlook, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. DGBAS Minister Chen Shu-tzu (陳淑姿) told lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee that the agency’s earlier growth forecast of 1.68 percent in the consumer price index (CPI) and 7.71 percent for GDP this year did not account for the ongoing Middle East conflict and would need revision, if tensions persist. The previous forecast assumed an average international crude price of
ELECTRIC DREAMS: Smart cities would use ‘virtual power plants,’ which integrate idle electricity use from households, businesses and factories, Asustek said Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday showcased key components of its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven smart city initiatives at a trade show in Taipei, eyeing new business opportunities as cities develop sovereign AI infrastructure. Advances in generative, multimodal and physical AI are driving cities toward a new phase of “sovereign AI,” Asustek cochief executive officer Samson Hu (胡書賓) told reporters on the sidelines of the Smart City Summit and Expo at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s Hall 2. The company showcased its “AI City” framework, which comprises three layers — computing infrastructure centered on AI servers, AI models and a platform layer for data processing
RSS