INTERNET
PChome’s income slumps
PChome Online Inc (網路家庭), the nation’s largest online shopping Web site operator, yesterday reported first-quarter net income of NT$207.93 million (US$6.88 million), down 28.68 percent from NT$291.52 million the previous year. Earnings per share were NT$1.85, compared with NT$2.47 in the same period the previous year, the company said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. While revenue in the first quarter rose to NT$7.07 billion from NT$6.92 billion the previous year, operating profit fell sharply to NT$255.7 million from NT$353.7 million, as the company increased marketing and research spending during the first quarter.
CHIPMAKERS
Lextar just in the black
Lextar Corp (隆達), which makes upstream LED chips and provides downstream packaging services, yesterday posted a net profit of NT$110,000 for the first quarter, from a net loss of NT$17.61 million the previous year, thanks to a product mix adjustment and an improved gross margin. The company said its gross profit increased to NT$437.16 million in the first quarter, from NT$284.14 million the previous year, while operating profit also rose to NT$76.6 million, from an operating loss of NT$48.17 million the previous year. Lextar said it booked a foreign-exchange loss of NT$50 million in the first quarter, but better cost controls and enhanced efficiency allowed it to raise gross margin to 13.92 percent from 8.38 percent the previous year.
CHIPMAKERS
IET’s net income slumps
Intelligent Epitaxy Technology Inc (IET, 英特磊), a supplier of epitaxy-based compound semiconductor wafers, yesterday said its net income fell 25.89 percent year-on-year to NT$17.75 million in the first quarter, or earnings per share of NT$0.49. Revenue for the first three months of this year decreased 16.04 percent from a year earlier to NT$194.31 million, while gross margin dropped 2.47 percentage points to 31.6 percent, the company said.
COMMUNICATIONS
Wistron NeWeb’s profit rises
Wistron NeWeb Corp (啟基), which specializes in designing and manufacturing advanced wireless communication devices, on Thursday posted a first-quarter net profit of NT$578.56 million, up 11.66 percent year-on-year, or earnings per share of NT$1.67. Gross margin was 15.02 percent, but the company’s revenue fell to NT$12.8 billion from NT$13.3 billion in the same period the previous year, as production and shipments of smart-home products were postponed to the second quarter. Wistron NeWeb can expect revenue and earnings to grow this quarter after it began a new smart-home project and increased shipments of higher-margin automotive connected modules, analysts said.
STOCK MARKET
Combined sales increase
The combined sales of companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange increased 0.68 percent last month from the previous year on a consolidated basis, driven mainly by firms in the steel, computer and shipping industries. Listed companies had a total of NT$2.15 trillion in revenue last month, up NT$14.4 billion from the previous year, the exchange said in a statement. Among them, 407 businesses’ revenue rose, while 429 firms reported declining sales, it said. The aggregate sales of the 836 companies listed on the bourse totaled NT$8.9 trillion in the first four months, up 4.53 percent from the previous year, the exchange said.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
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