■ Electronics
Acer denies Siemens tie-up
Acer Inc, the nation's third biggest computer company, isn't in talks with Siemens AG, Germany's largest electronics company, over a mobile-phone tie-up, said Henry Wang, an Acer spokesman. The Taipei-based company has no plans to buy the German company's mobile-phone unit or hire it to make mobile phones, Wang said. "We won't rule out tapping the mobile-phone market, but our core business is computers and that will continue to be our focus," he said. German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported on Friday that Acer was in advanced talks with Siemens. Citing people familiar with the situation that it didn't identify, the paper said Acer wasn't the only company in talks with Siemens. The mobile-phone unit of Munich-based Siemens is set to lose 125 million euros (US$163 million) in its fiscal second quarter, according to a Bloomberg survey of analysts. A Siemens spokesman declined to comment.
■ Privatization
Land Bank stake to be sold
Taiwan's government plans to sell a 13.5 percent stake in state-run Land Bank of Taiwan (土地銀行) for the listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in August, a Chinese-language newspaper reported, citing a Ministry of Finance proposal. The ministry plans to sell a 5.4 percent stake in Land Bank to its workers and 8.1 percent to the public, the report said. Taiwan plans to sell another stake in the lender following its listing to overseas investors, the report said. The government plans to price the shares for at least NT$20 (US$0.63) each, Aaron Chou , head of the Land Bank's planning department said in November.
■ Manufacturing
Forty share dormitory toilet
Operators of a foreign workers' dormitory have been told to clean up by tomorrow or face action after occupants complained 40 men were sharing one toilet and up to 10 were sleeping in rooms the size of bus shelters. The dormitory, housing at least 3,000 workers, is operated by GoldStrong Technology, which can be fined a maximum of S$10,000 (US$6,097) if it does not comply. The dorm became the focus of attention on Friday after Yeo Guat Kwang, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Manpower, was shut out by GoldStrong management when he went to investigate the complaints of dire living conditions. National Environment Agency rules stipulate that toilets must not be shared by more than 15 people and each worker should have 3m2 of space.
■ Telecoms
Qwest sweetens MCI offer
Qwest Communications International Inc has upped its offer for MCI Inc by US$800 million to fend off a rival offer from Verizon, news reports said on Friday. The new cash-and-stock offer, the third time Qwest has raised its bid, values MCI at US$9.7 billion and breaks down to US$30 per share. It also includes an additional US$1 billion in committed financing to ease concerns about whether the combined company would have the financial resources to compete, Qwest chief executive Richard Notebaert said in a letter to MCI's board. The latest bid, described as Qwest's "best and final," will be withdrawn if it is not declared superior by Virginia-based MCI by 3pm today, he said. The offer came two weeks after the MCI board for the second time accepted an offer from Verizon Communications Inc. Verizon's latest bid was a US$7.5 billion cash-and-stock offer, valued at US$23.10 a share.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
CHIP HANG-UP: Surging memorychip prices would deal a blow to smartphone sales this year, potentially hindering one of MediaTek’s biggest sources of revenue MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip designer, yesterday said its new artificial intelligence (AI) chips used in data centers are to account for 20 percent of its total revenue next year, as cloud service providers race to deploy AI infrastructure to meet voracious demand. MediaTek is believed to be developing tensor processing units for Google, which are used in AI applications. While it did not confirm such reports, MediaTek said its new application-specific IC (ASIC) business would be a new growth engine for the company. It again hiked its forecast for the addressable ASIC market to US$70 billion by 2028, compared
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
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