Inventec Appliances Corp (
Shares of Taipei-based Inventec Appliances, which assembles Apple Inc's iPods last year, rose NT$4.30, or 6.96 percent, to NT$66.10.
A public relationship officer at Inventec Appliance said by phone yesterday that the company doesn't comment on market speculation, citing client confidentiality. She declined to be named.
"It makes sense Inventec Appliances will continue to assemble hard-disk drive-based iPods," said Andrew Wang, who helps manage the equivalent of US$1.2 billion at Prudential Financial Securities Investment Trust Enterprise (
Apple shares also rose 5.7 percent overnight in New York on speculation the company will debut new versions of the iPod media player, and that its iTunes store may start selling music from the Beatles.
Cupertino, California-based Apple e-mailed invitations on Wednesday to a Sept. 5 event called "The Beat Goes On." They show a silhouetted dancer carrying an iPod, with album covers in the background, suggesting Apple may debut new iPods, according to analysts including Goldman Sachs Group Inc's David Bailey.
New iPods may prompt buyers to upgrade devices in the next two quarters, the New York-based analyst said in a report.
The wording of the e-mail also suggests Apple may have reached a deal with the Beatles after ending decades of litigation this year, Piper Jaffray & Co's Gene Munster said.
"We expect Apple to launch several unreleased tracks and other special Beatles-related content," the Minneapolis-based analyst said in a report yesterday. "The beat goes on" were the final words used in the Beatles' last press release in 1970, a sign CEO Steve Jobs may announce a deal for their music, Munster said.
Apple shares increased US$7.26 to close at US$134.08 on Wednesday in NASDAQ Stock Market trading, the most in a month.
Jobs hasn't updated the iPod since last year's introduction of the US$79 Shuffle. The company has sold more than 100 million iPods since their debut in 2001. It's the best-selling digital media player in the US, with about a 70 percent share of the market, according to the NPD Group Inc in Port Washington, New York.
UBS AG analyst Benjamin Reitzes said he expects a new version of Apple's pencil-thin Nano with more storage and an update of the video iPod that includes the touch screen display that debuted in the iPhone in June.
The iPhone combines a music and video player with a mobile handset and has a 3.5-inch color screen, compared with the 2.5- inch display Apple currently offers on the video iPod.
Despite its surging share prices, things have not been going as smoothly for Inventec Appliance's executives.
On Aug. 8, prosecutors at Banciao District Prosecutors' Office charged nine Inventec Appliances officials, including chairman Jackson Chang (
The company has denied any wrongdoing by its executives in the case and said the prosecutors' indictment case would not affect its operations and financial structure.
Additional reporting by Jason Tan
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
RSS