■ Infineon plans IPO
Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's second-largest maker of semiconductors, plans to sell shares in its memory-chip business in an initial public offering (IPO) on the New York Stock Exchange in the second half of this year. The exact timing for selling shares in the unit called Qimonda AG will depend on the "market environment," the Munich-based company said in a statement yesterday. Infineon will continue to hold a majority in Qimonda after the IPO. Management board member Loh Kin Wah (羅建華) will head the new memory-chip company. Qimonda became a legally independent division on May 1 and Infineon's supervisory board approved the IPO plan yesterday.
■ Tatung chief passes away
Tatung Co's (大同) chief executive passed away yesterday after succumbing to kidney failure, according to a company statement. The 88-year-old Lin Ting-sheng (林挺生) died at his home at 12:20pm in the company of his family members, the statement read. Lin took charge of Tatung in 1942. Under his leadership, Tatung enjoyed an impressive history, becoming the first company to produce electronic fans in 1949, and the first private company in Taiwan to make an initial public offering in 1957. Lin officially passed his chairmanship to son Lin Wei-shan (林蔚山) in March, and assumed the role of chief executive. Founded in 1918, Tatung is the nation's leading maker of home appliances and industrial motors.
■ Ministry touts Americas
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and the quasi-official Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 外貿協會) will jointly host three trade workshops next week aimed at helping local manufacturers explore American markets by taking advantage of free-trade agreements, a TAITRA official said yesterday. The official said that the Free Trade Area of the Americas is expected to become the world's largest trading bloc in the foreseeable future, and Taiwanese entrepreneurs should seek to make inroads into American markets as early as possible in order to speed up globalization of their business operations.
■ IT conference underway
A two-day forum on cross-strait information technology standardization opened in Taipei yesterday. The seminar was organized by Taiwan's SinoCon Foundation, headed by Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) -- a vice chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). China's Information Industry Vice Minister Jiang Yaoping (蔣耀平) arrived in Taipei on Tuesday with a 44-member delegation to participate in the conference.
■ Eva plans new route
EVA Airways Corp (長榮) plans to launch a new route to the Japanese city of Nagoya beginning July 10, airlines officials said yesterday. "We will provide five round-trip flights weekly between Taipei and Nagoya," spokesman Nieh Kuo-wei (聶國維) said. He said the new route would bring to six the number of Japanese destinations serviced by the company. The other Japanese cities EVA flies to are Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Sendai and Sapporo. Nieh said EVA would also expand its Taipei-Osaka service from seven to nine flights weekly beginning July 10 and to 11 flights per week beginning in the winter.
■ NT dollar appreciates
The NT dollar rose yesterday after the Japanese yen surged to an eight-month high, dealers said. The NT dollar rose NT$0.159 to close at NT$31.338 per US dollar on the Taipei foreign exchange market. Turnover was US$1.123 billion.
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
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure
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