Kingston tops DRAM market
Kingston Technology Corp (金士頓) retained its top position in the global DRAM module market last year by revenue, while Adata Technology (威剛) saw its ranking climb to the second spot from No. 4, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report yesterday.
With US$3.59 billion in revenue, US-based Kingston seized 49.2 percent of the market totaling US$7.3 billion last year, according to TrendForce’s tallies.
Taiwan’s Adata expanded its market share to 8.66 percent last year from 5.33 percent in 2012 as its revenue more than doubled to US$632 million from US$292 million in the previous year.
Ramaxel Technology (Shenzhen) Co (記憶科技) saw its ranking fall one notch to No. 3 from No. 2 last year on revenue of US$598 million.
Cathay Securities profit rises
Cathay Securities Corp (國泰證券), a securities trading arm of Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控), yesterday said that its pretax profit for the first half of this year doubled from a year earlier, with analysts attributing the growth to a strong rebound in the local bourse.
In the past six months, Cathay Securities posted NT$250 million (US$8.33 million) in pretax profit, up 128 percent from a year earlier, to surpass NT$230 million recorded for the whole of last year, the brokerage said.
In the same period, earnings per share (EPS) before tax e stood at NT$0.53, up 104 percent from a year earlier, the highest level in the brokerage’s history, it added.
HTC shifting personnel
Smartphone vendor HTC Corp (宏達電) has appointed chief financial officer Chang Chia-lin (張嘉臨) as co-head of its smartphone business in a series of personnel changes that include the resignation of marketing head Ben Ho (何永生).
Chang and chief engineering officer David Chen (陳文俊) will take on additional roles to jointly run the business, chief executive officer Peter Chou (周永明) said in a memo to employees that was obtained by Bloomberg News on Wednesday.
A new emerging devices team managed by Mike Woodward and an engineering team led by WH Liu, will report directly to Chou, the memo said.
Fred Liu (劉慶東), who joined the company in 1998 and most recently held the post of president of engineering and operations, will move away from a day-to-day role and take an advisory position.
MediaTek comes in third
Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) was ranked the world’s third-largest supplier of smartphone chips in the first quarter of the year, Strategy Analytics said a report on Tuesday.
It said Qualcomm Inc maintained its strong lead in the smartphone applications processor market during the January-to-March period with a 53 percent revenue share, followed by Apple Inc with 16 percent and MediaTek with 13 percent.
Samsung Electronics Co and Spreadtrum Communications Inc were ranked the fourth and fifth-largest in that market, the report said.
Overall, the market for global smartphone applications processors registered an impressive 25 percent year-on-year growth in the first quarter, reaching US$4.7 billion, Strategy Analytics said.
Asustek seeking engineers
PC vendor Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) plans to hire hundreds of engineers this year as it expands into the new fields of mobile computing and cloud computing.
Asustek said it is looking for personnel with skills in either hardware or software design or online services.
It is to hold a recruiting event at its headquarters in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) on Aug. 2.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS