Citi sells off last Fubon stake
Citigroup has divested its remaining holdings in Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控), the nation's fourth-biggest financial group said yesterday.
Fubon president Victor Kung (龔天行) said that since the two groups called off their strategic alliance in June 2004, Citigroup has gradually offloaded its stockholding in Fubon.
On July 12, the US bank sold 118 million common shares to foreign institutional investors, followed by its final move last Thursday to sell more than 99 million global depositary shares, reducing its holding in the Taiwanese rival to zero.
Acer chief pans Windows Vista
The head of Taiwan-based PC maker Acer, Gianfranco Lanci, hit out at Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, calling it a big disappointment.
"The entire industry is disappointed by Windows Vista," the head of the world's fourth-biggest PC maker told the Financial Times Deutschland in its online edition yesterday.
Never before had a new version of Windows done so little to boost PC sales.
"And that's not going to change in the second half of this year," Lanci said.
"I really don't think that someone has bought a new PC specifically for Vista," he said.
While the industry had waited years for Vista, the software was not really ready when it was launched to great pomp at the start of this year, Lanci said.
"Stability is certainly a problem," he said.
ASE, NXP team up in China
Global IC testing and packaging giant Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE, 日月光半導體) and NXP Semiconductors of the Netherlands will invest an initial US$36 million in a joint venture in China, the Taiwanese company said yesterday.
ASE will take a 60 percent stake in the project in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, while NXP will hold the remaining 40 percent, it said.
The joint venture, expected to begin operations later this year, is to provide packaging and testing services, the spokesman said.
"The US$36 million will be an initial investment. We are expecting to put more funds into the project but the amount will depend on market conditions," he said.
HTC joining top brands list
High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), the world's largest maker of handsets using Windows operating system, is joining the nation's list of top 20 brands.
HTC, which recently ventured into the own-brand business with the launch of "HTC Touch,"a touchscreen phone, is one of the newcomers in the roster of top local brands that offer the most value.
The top companies will be formally announced on Thursday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (外貿協會).
Other names in the top 20 list include Acer Inc, Advantech Co (研華), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), BenQ Corp (明基), D-Link Corp (友訊科技), Depo Auto Parts Industrial Co (帝寶工業) and Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械)
Biotech begins on Thursday
Bio Taiwan, an exhibition showcasing the latest biotech innovations and products, will start its four-day run on Thursday at Taipei World Trade Center Exhibition Hall I.
More than 300 exhibitors from the public and private sectors occupying more than 700 booths will display medical equipment, health food, skincare products, including an expensive golden facial mask priced at NT$8,000 each, and other biotech applications, organizer Taiwan Bio Industry Organization (中華民國生物產業發展協會) said at a press conference yesterday.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
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