Local WiMAX operator Vee Time Corp (威達雲端) has decided to fully acquire local peer Vmax Telecom Co (威邁思) for NT$1.45 billion (US$47.72 million) in an effort to expand its network coverage and customer base.
Vee Time, which provides WiMAX services in Greater Taichung, said it planned to buy 200 million Vmax shares at NT$7.25 a share, according to a company statement filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Saturday.
The company’s decision came after its board approved the plan earlier on Saturday, making it the first consolidation deal in the nation’s crowded WiMAX market, cutting the number of the nation’s WiMAX operators to five from six.
Vee Time’s decision was bigger than its original plan of acquiring a 50 percent stake in Vmax from Vmax shareholders Vibo Telecom Inc (威寶電信) and Intel Corp.
Vmax is 34 percent held by Vibo, 18 percent by Intel and 48 percent by local telecoms equipment maker Tecom Co (東訊).
Tecom said on Saturday in a separate filing that its board had given the go-ahead to offload 77.92 million Vmax shares for NT$506.48 million, or NT$6.5 a share, which is lower than the NT$7.25 Vee Time offered.
Tecom said in the filing it would make NT$37.11 million in profit from the transaction, which would be part of its efforts to “sell non-core assets and to strengthen its financial ability.”
The government in 2009 issued licenses to six local companies to offer WiMAX services in either the north or the south of the country. In addition to Vee Time and Vmax, the other four WiMAX operators are Global Mobile Corp (全球一動), Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), First International Telecom Corp (大眾電信) and Tatung InfoComm Co (大同電信).
However, Intel announced in July last year it would integrate its WiMAX Program Office with the company’s other business units, a move that raised concerns among its Taiwanese partners and the Ministry of Economic Affairs about the US chip giant’s commitment to WiMAX technology.
As of the end of March, there were only 58,300 WiMAX subscribers in Taiwan, which has not only cast a shadow over the future of WiMAX usage in the country, but also prompted Taipei Computer Association (台北市電腦公會) chairman J.T. Wang (王振堂) to urge existing operators to merge for greater economies of scale.
In June this year, Vibo said it intended to sell its shares in Vmax to focus on its 3G network upgrade, given limited resources, while Global Mobile said in May it was planning to switch over to Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology from WiMAX for a 4G wireless service.
Vee Time, based in Taichung, will become the nation’s first WiMAX operator with nationwide network coverage following the transaction, which is still pending regulatory approval.
The deal aims to “boost WiMAX subscribers and to provide users with nationwide coverage, as well as to increase company value,” Vee Time said in the statement.
Napoleon Osorio is proud of being the first taxi driver to have accepted payment in bitcoin in the first country in the world to make the cryptocurrency legal tender: El Salvador. He credits Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s decision to bank on bitcoin three years ago with changing his life. “Before I was unemployed... And now I have my own business,” said the 39-year-old businessman, who uses an app to charge for rides in bitcoin and now runs his own car rental company. Three years ago the leader of the Central American nation took a huge gamble when he put bitcoin
Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips should spur growth for the semiconductor industry over the next few years, the CEO of a major supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said, dismissing concerns that investors had misjudged the pace and extent of spending on AI. While the global chip market has grown about 8 percent annually over the past 20 years, AI semiconductors should grow at a much higher rate going forward, Scientech Corp (辛耘) chief executive officer Hsu Ming-chi (許明琪) told Bloomberg Television. “This booming of the AI industry has just begun,” Hsu said. “For the most prominent
Former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) yesterday warned against the tendency to label stakeholders as either “pro-China” or “pro-US,” calling such rigid thinking a “trap” that could impede policy discussions. Liu, an adviser to the Cabinet’s Economic Development Committee, made the comments in his keynote speech at the committee’s first advisers’ meeting. Speaking in front of Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) and other officials, Liu urged the public to be wary of falling into the “trap” of categorizing people involved in discussions into either the “pro-China” or “pro-US” camp. Liu,
Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said Taiwan’s government plans to set up a business service company in Kyushu, Japan, to help Taiwanese companies operating there. “The company will follow the one-stop service model similar to the science parks we have in Taiwan,” Kuo said. “As each prefecture is providing different conditions, we will establish a new company providing services and helping Taiwanese companies swiftly settle in Japan.” Kuo did not specify the exact location of the planned company but said it would not be in Kumamoto, the Kyushu prefecture in which Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC, 台積電) has a
RSS