TECHNOLOGY
Apple adds database firm
Apple Inc has acquired database company FoundationDB LLC, a person familiar with the matter said, a purchase that likely would bolster cloud computing. The Vienna, Virginia-based software maker posted a message on its Web site saying it was no longer offering downloads. “We have made the decision to evolve our company mission,” FoundationDB said. Apple chief executive Tim Cook has overseen some of the firm’s most aggressive purchases in recent years, including its acquisition of Beats Electronics LLC for US$3 billion last year. Last year, Apple acquired 17 companies, Cook said last month during a Goldman Sachs Group Inc conference in San Francisco. “We are continuing to acquire where we find skills that are great and technologies that are great,” Cook said.
BITCOIN
Trader to use NASDAQ tech
The biggest US stock exchange operators are taking steps to embrace bitcoin, spurring speculation that the digital currency is coming up from the underground. NASDAQ OMX Group Inc on Tuesday said that New York-based Noble Markets, a platform for trading bitcoin, has agreed to license NASDAQ’s X-stream technology. Noble is adopting the same software used by securities exchanges around the world, and a related system runs the NASDAQ stock market. The news follows the New York Stock Exchange’s January agreement to invest in Coinbase, another platform for trading bitcoin. Deploying NASDAQ’s software could give Noble greater legitimacy. NASDAQ provides trading software to entities such as Japan Exchange Group Inc and Singapore Exchange Ltd, which are among the biggest market operators in the world.
CHINA
Free-trade zones approved
China has approved three more free-trade zones, state media reported, despite the nation’s first such project in Shanghai proving disappointing after 18 months. A Central Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party meeting hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Tuesday approved zones in Guangdong and Fujian provinces and in Tianjin, Xinhua news agency reported. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce had already announced in December last year that three free-trade zones would be set up in those locations. State media have said the Guangdong zone aims to speed up economic integration with Hong Kong. The Fujian zone is focused on Taiwan, while the Tianjin zone is part of a push to better integrate the city with Beijing and Hebei Province.
ECONOMY
German confidence rising
Business confidence increased for a fifth month this month, adding to signs that Europe’s largest economy is back in position as the region’s economic powerhouse. The Ifo Institute for Economic Research’s business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, advanced to 107.9 this month from 106.8. The median estimate of 43 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for an increase to 107.3. The report comes a day after a survey showed growth in manufacturing and services accelerated to their fastest in eight months this month. That is helping the 19-nation eurozone gather strength as the European Central Bank adds further stimulus with its 1.1 trillion euro (US$1.2 trillion) bond-buying program. There is “hope of somewhat stronger economic growth in the spring” in the eurozone, said Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
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