PC MAKERS
Dell fined over SonicWall
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday fined Dell BV Taiwan NT$2 million (US$65,157.19) for refusing to sell Internet security software SonicWall to a Taiwanese software company two years ago. The commission said the Taiwanese firm was appointed by Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) southern branch to purchase SonicWall, but Dell allegedly requested its local distributors to not sell the software to the firm, and in doing so violated Article 19 of the Fair Trade Act (公平交易法).
STOCK MARKETS
TWSE approves TOPIX funds
The Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE, 臺灣證券交易所) on Tuesday approved Fubon Securities Investment Trust Co’s (富邦投信) issue of three exchange-traded funds (ETF) tracking the TOPIX, the benchmark index in Tokyo. The three ETFs to be raised by Fubon are to be denominated in New Taiwan dollars, the TWSE said, adding that initial cooperation between the stock exchange in Taiwan and Japan could start in the second half of this year.
HEALTHCARE
Dr Wu to debut on prep board
Dr Wu Skincare Co (達爾膚生技), 22.6 percent held by French luxury brand Louis Vuitton Malletier, is to debut its shares today on the local emerging board, which is a preparatory board for the nation’s two main bourses. The leading clinical skincare brand reported earnings per share of NT$8.68 last year. The company operates more than 1,200 stores in Asia and North America, with a 30 percent market share in Taiwan, CEO Wu Yi-jui (吳奕叡) said.
PANEL MAKERS
Radiant income drops 49.6%
Radiant Opto-Electronics Corp (瑞儀光電), a supplier of LCD backlight modules for Apple’s iPad, yesterday said net income fell by 49.6 percent year-on-year and 71.5 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$395 million for the first quarter of the year, or NT$0.85 per share. The firm attributed the weaker-than-expected earnings to declining sales and sliding margins last quarter. Sales fell to NT$9.44 billion and gross margin dropped to 10.2 percent last quarter, the firm said. The firm’s board yesterday approved the distribution of a cash dividend of NT$5.5 per share after the company posted earnings per share of NT$8.01 last year.
TELECOMS
Far EasTone beats forecast
Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), the nation’s third-biggest telecom, on Tuesday reported earnings per share of NT$0.92 for the quarter ending last month, beating the firm’s forecast, while its average revenue per user increased 3 percent year-on-year, the strongest among local peers. However, it faced margin pressure in the first quarter, with earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortization margins falling by 2.5 percent year-on-year, compared with Chunghwa Telecom Co’s (中華電信) 0.3 percent growth and Taiwan Mobile Co’s (台灣大哥大) 2.3 percent decrease.
ELECTRONICS
LCD TV shipments down 24%
Global shipments of LCD TVs shrank by 24 percent from the previous quarter to 51.44 million units last quarter, according to WitsView, an LCD research arm of TrendForce Corp (集邦科技). The falling shipments for last quarter were caused by a mixed bag of negative factors, WitsView said, citing weak consumer purchases in Europe and emerging markets because of volatile foreign exchange rates there, as well as saturated demand in China.
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
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