SOFTWARE
Microsoft names manager
Microsoft Corp yesterday said it has named Ken Sun (孫基康), former president of Schneider Electric Taiwan Co (施耐德), to serve as the general manager of its local branch with immediate effect. Sun is to oversee the company’s operations and strategies in Taiwan, Microsoft said in a statement. Microsoft vice president of the greater China region Davis Tsai (蔡恩全), who has served as the acting general manager at the Taiwan branch since the beginning of July, will assist Sun with the transition, Microsoft said.
UTILITIES
No power price hike expected
Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) yesterday said that a planned pay raise at Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is not expected to affect electricity rates next year, as the increase is estimated to account for a “very” small portion of Taipower’s operating costs. “It [the percentage] is as small as a peanut,” Shen said before a Ministry of Economic Affairs weekly meeting, without elaborating. Taipower said it has not yet started its administrative procedure for the pay raise.
CHIPMAKERS
Adata begins buyback
Adata Technology Co (威剛科技), the nation’s biggest memory module maker, yesterday began to buy back its own shares from the open market in a bid to protect shareholders’ interests. The company plans to purchase 6 million of its shares at between NT$54 and NT$113.6 per share, Adata said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The scheme is to run through Nov. 13 and the repurchased share will be distributed to employees, the firm said. Adata shares ended 1.94 percent higher at NT$78.7 in Taipei trading yesterday.
GAMING
XPEC to discuss plans
Troubled game developer XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技) yesterday said it plans to hold an extraordinary general meeting on Nov. 29 to elect a new board of directors and discuss contingency plans for the company’s future development. XPEC is to be delisted from the over-the-counter bourse on Oct. 19, the Taipei Exchange said on Friday last week after the firm failed to elect a new board of directors and provided no workable measures to improve its financial condition.
MOBILE PHONES
IPhone orders soar
Preorders for two of the latest iPhone models have soared to almost 10,000 since Wednesday evening, Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) said in a press release yesterday, with the orders split evenly between the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus, and gold remaining the most popular color. Asia Pacific Telecom Co (亞太電信) has not disclosed how many orders it has received. The two iPhone 8 models are to be officially released in stores across Taiwan on Friday next week.
TAXES
Revenue reaches NT$1.5tn
The government collected NT$1.5 trillion (US$49.82 billion) in tax revenue during the first eight months of the year, up 2.3 percent from the same period a year earlier, data released by the Ministry of Finance on Monday showed. Among the main sources of tax revenue were value-added taxes (NT$241.4 billion), corporate income taxes (NT$308.5 billion), personal income taxes (NT$387.0 billion), excise taxes (NT$117.6 billion), tobacco surcharges (NT$26.6 billion) and land value increment taxes (NT$61.5 billion).
AI REVOLUTION: The event is to take place from Wednesday to Friday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center’s halls 1 and 2 and would feature more than 1,100 exhibitors Semicon Taiwan, an annual international semiconductor exhibition, would bring leaders from the world’s top technology firms to Taipei this year, the event organizer said. The CEO Summit is to feature nine global leaders from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), Applied Materials Inc, Google, Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc, Microsoft Corp, Interuniversity Microelectronic Centre and Marvell Technology Group Ltd, SEMI said in a news release last week. The top executives would delve into how semiconductors are positioned as the driving force behind global technological innovation amid the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, the organizer said. Among them,
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
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