ELECTRONICS
HTC announces payout
HTC Corp (宏達電) plans to pay a cash dividend of NT$37 per share for last year, and 50 shares for each 1,000 currently held, the company said in a stock exchange filing yesterday. Separately, the Taoyuan-based company will pay about NT$1.8 billion (US$63 million) to buy approximately 48,975m2 adjacent to its current headquarters, it said. HTC reiterated on Friday that the company is optimistic about the growth of its content services and announced it will launch its own streaming video service, HTC Watch, in the second quarter this year. Although the new service may not contribute much to revenue during its first year, it holds incredible potential for the future, the company said during its online earnings call, using Apple’s iTunes store as a reference point.
SHIPPING
Evergreen posts profit
Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), the listed unit of Asia’s biggest container line, posted a fourth straight quarterly profit, as the global economic recovery boosted shipping volumes. Net income was NT$1.31 billion, or NT$0.41 a share, in the first quarter, compared with a net loss of NT$87 million, or NT$0.03, a year earlier, the Taipei-based company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing on Friday.
? JAPAN
Supply biggest challenge
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the country’s biggest challenge is to restore supply chains damaged by the March 11 earthquake. Easing supply constraints will lead the economy to recover, Shirakawa said yesterday at a parliamentary session. The central bank views the nation’s economic outlook as “severe,” he said.
INTERNET
Amazon launches music site
Amazon.com Inc this week launched a store that sells digital songs for US$0.69, an attempt to bring more people to its e-commerce Web site and bolster its plan to charge people to store tunes on distant servers known as the cloud. It has cut the price on singles to US$0.69 in the past, but this is the first time it has dedicated a page to the offering. About 200 songs out of the 15 million available have had prices cut to US$0.69. Craig Pape, the director of Amazon Music, said cutting prices boosts music sales and improves the site’s music recommendation engine.
MEDIA
‘Boston Globe’ nets interest
The Boston Globe reported on Friday that a businessman is preparing to offer more than US$200 million to buy the struggling newspaper from its owner, The New York Times Co. The Boston Globe said Aaron Kushner will make a formal offer within the next few weeks for the Times Co’s New England Media Group, which includes the Boston Globe, Boston.com, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette of central Massachusetts and Telegram.com.
CHEMICALS
DuPont raises Danisco offer
DuPont raised its US$5.8 billion offer for Danish food-additives maker Danisco by about 5.3 percent in what it called a best and final proposal. DuPont said on Friday it was offering 700 Danish kroner per share for Danisco and extending the offer period for the last time to May 13. The Delaware-based chemical company also said it was exercising its right to require 80 percent of shares tendered to go through with the deal, down from 90 percent. DuPont offered 665 Danish kroner in a January tender offer.
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed-income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
CHEMICAL FIRE: 10 Indian employees were injured by smoke inhalation at a Tata Electronics plant in Tamil Nadu state that produces components for Apple Inc At least 10 people received medical treatment, with two hospitalized after a major fire on Saturday disrupted production at a key Tata Electronics Pvt Ltd plant in southern India that makes Apple Inc’s iPhone components. The fire occurred at the plant in the city of Hosur in Tamil Nadu state that makes some iPhone components. It broke out near another building inside the Tata complex, which was to begin producing complete iPhones in the coming months. The fire was contained to one building and has been extinguished fully, top district administrative official K.M. Sarayu said. No decision has been made on when
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