The Taiwanese employer of a young Chinese man who killed himself after being interrogated over a missing iPhone prototype has agreed to pay compensation to his family, a company official said yesterday.
Sun Danyong (孫丹勇), 25, jumped from his high-rise apartment in southern China last week after officials of Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) questioned him about the whereabouts of the iPhone model that was in his possession.
Sun was responsible for sending the device to US-based Apple Inc, which contracts with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s biggest contract manufacturer of electronics.
Sun alleged he was beaten and abused by Hon Hai security personnel, who denied it.
Sun’s suicide cast unwelcome attention on Apple’s culture of secrecy, which tries to create a big pre-launch buzz about products and upgrades. Apple is also a constant target of prying journalists, customers and competitors who want an early peek at its gadgets.
A Hon Hai official in Taipei said yesterday the company would pay Sun’s parents a lump sum of 360,000 yuan (US$52,600), plus 30,000 yuan every year as long as either of them remains alive.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, Hon Hai apologized for the incident and suspended the security chief who headed the Sun investigation. The chief admitted he grabbed Sun once by the shoulder but denied beating him.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
Pegatron Corp (和碩), a key assembler of Apple Inc’s iPhones, on Thursday reported a 12.3 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for last quarter to NT$257.86 billion (US$8.44 billion), but it expects revenue to improve in the second half on traditional holiday demand. The fourth quarter is usually the peak season for its communications products, a company official said on condition of anonymity. As Apple released its new iPhone 17 series early last month, sales in the communications segment rose sequentially last month, the official said. Shipments to Apple have been stable and in line with earlier expectations, they said. Pegatron shipped 2.4 million notebook
RSS