■ FOOD
Units buy Want Want shares
Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), Taiwan’s biggest food company, said two units bought a combined 0.98 percent stake in Want Want China Holdings Ltd (旺旺中國控股) for HK$401 million (US$51 million). The units bought about 132 million Want Want China shares at a price range of between HK$3.03 and HK$3.05 apiece from April 1 until Friday, the Taipei-based food company said in two separate filings on the TAIEX. The two units are President (BVI) International Investment Holdings Ltd and Uni-President China Holdings Ltd. Shanghai-based Want Want China is the country’s largest maker of rice cakes and flavored milk.
■ REAL ESTATE
Transactions up 11 percent
Real estate transactions in Taipei City were up by 11 percent in the first quarter compared with the last three months of last year, a sign of rebounding confidence in the local housing market. The figures released by the city government showed that the number of properties bought and sold in January had reached its highest level since the second month of last year. Real estate brokers said the figures showed that the confidence of residents of Taipei in the local housing market had recovered and that this trend should continue. Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房屋) president Yeh Ling-chi (葉凌棋) said that online surveys conducted by his company after the January legislative elections and the presidential election last month showed that a growing number of residents were optimistic about the housing market.
■ TELECOMS
eBay may sell Skype
EBay Inc is considering selling its Skype Internet telephone division unless it can be combined with other units, the company said. EBay will review Skype this year to see if it is helping its online auction and PayPal systems, eBay chief executive John Donahoe told the Financial Times on Friday. If the results don’t pan out, the company would take a new look at the situation. This could lead to selling Skype, the report said. But Donahoe dismissed reports that eBay wanted to sell the internet payment system PayPal, which Donahoe said brings huge advantages to eBay and which the company wants to hold on to “for many years,” Donahoe said.
■ TELECOMS
AT&T announces cuts
US telecommunications giant AT&T Inc said on Friday it will reduce its workforce by 1.5 percent, primarily among management employees, as part of a plan to streamline operations. The company said it expects to take a pre-tax charge of US$374 million during the first quarter related to the job cuts. AT&T said that despite the layoffs, which represent about 4,500 employees, the overall headcount was expected to remain stable this year, as it plans to hire additional employees to support growth areas.
■ INTERNET
Europeans not all Web savvy
Europe is home to some of the most Internet-savvy countries in the world: the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland. But 40 percent of EU citizens never use the Internet at all, the European Commission said on Friday, meaning many people risk being left behind as more public and commercial services go online. About two-thirds of Romanians, Bulgarians and Greeks are strangers to the online world. Elderly people, those out of work and those with less education are more likely to be offline, an EU report said, telling European governments to work harder to close the gaps.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
IMAGE SENSORS: The Japanese company would be the controlling shareholder of the venture, with development and production lines to be set up in Kumamoto Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp to create a joint venture to develop and produce next-generation images sensors. The partnership seeks to explore and address emerging opportunities in physical artificial intelligence (AI) applications, such as automotive and robotics, paving the way for innovations and expanded technological advancements, TSMC said in a statement. Sony would be the majority and controlling shareholder of the joint venture, the statement said, adding that the company would set up development and production lines in its newly constructed fab in Kumamoto Prefecture’s
The nation’s foreign exchange reserves climbed back above US$600 billion at the end of last month, as investment gains, currency valuation effects and renewed foreign inflows offset volatility seen earlier in the month, the central bank said yesterday. Reserves stood at US$602.49 billion, up US$5.6 billion from the previous month, the central bank said. The rebound reflected returns on reserve assets, fluctuations in major currencies against the US dollar and the central bank’s market operations aimed at maintaining orderly trading conditions, Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民) said. Financial markets were volatile early last month, with foreign investors recording net purchases
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