TECHNOLOGY
Google’s HTC buy approved
The Investment Commission on Friday approved Google’s purchase of a portion of HTC Corp’s (宏達電) smartphone assets, a deal announced in September. The commission said it had given the green light to Google’s application to transmit NT$33.15 billion (US$1.105 billion) into a wholly owned local unit, which will be responsible for acquiring HTC’s smartphone research and development (R&D) team and the related intellectual property. Also on Friday, the commission said it approved Gogoro Inc’s (睿能創意) third-round capital increase of US$1.8 billion, which the electric scooter maker plans to spend on marketing and R&D.
SEMICONDUCTORS
Mosel raises private capital
Memorychip maker Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽) said on Friday that its board has approved plans to sell 38 million shares through a private placement with the price set at NT$13.68. Mosel said Actron Technology Corp (朋程) and Pynmax Technology Co (璟茂) are two major strategic investors that will subscribe to its new shares. The company will use the proceeds to expand its manufacturing capacity and increase its working capital, Mosel said.
MACROECONOMICS
Listed firms’ revenue rises
Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange saw their combined revenue increase 10 percent year-on-year last month, driven mainly by firms in the building material, electronics and general merchandise industries. Listed companies posted a total of NT$2.87 trillion in revenue, up NT$262.6 billion from a year earlier, the exchange said on Tuesday. Aggregate sales at the 838 firms listed on the bourse totaled NT$26.8 trillion in the first 11 months of the year, up 6.1 percent from NT$25.26 trillion a year earlier, it said.
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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