MOBILE
Ichia revenue falls 30%
Handset keypad maker Ichia Technologies Inc (毅嘉科技) on Friday reported revenue of NT$377 million (US$12.25 million) for last month, up 0.03 percent from a year earlier, but a decline of 30 percent from the previous month, due to fewer working days during the Lunar New Year holiday. Last month’s revenue included about NT$294 million in sales from flexible printed circuit integrated components and about NT$84 million from mechanical integrated components, the company said. Cumulative revenue in the first two months of this year decreased 6.28 percent year-on-year to NT$917.45 million, Ichia said.
RETAIL
Forever 21 closing last store
Los Angeles-based fast fashion brand Forever 21 has decided to pull out of Taiwan at the end of this month after closing its last outlet near Taipei’s Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT Station, affecting 58 jobs. In a letter to employees revealed on Friday, the retailer said that business in Taiwan has not been good in the past few years and that it would shutter the Zhongxiao outlet on March 31. The retailer entered Taiwan in June 2015 and launched its first outlet in Taipei’s prime Xinyi District (信義). It closed the Xinyi outlet in September last year when the lease expired.
ELECTRONICS
Xiaomi GM likely leaving
Xiaomi Taiwan general manager Henman Lee (李佳峰) is reportedly exiting the company after more than five years of working at the Chinese smartphone brand, local media reported on Friday, citing market speculation. Lee’s post is likely to be filled by Janine Luo (羅燕), head of Xiaomi’s Hong Kong and US operations, the reports said. Xiaomi Taiwan declined to comment on Lee’s departure or his successor.
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
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