After just 50 days on the job, Tatung Co (大同) chairman Lin Wen-yuan (林文淵) has been dismissed.
Lin made the announcement at a news conference in Taipei yesterday, saying that he “does not know exactly why myself” the reason for his tenure being cut short.
Lin said that he had “minor differences of opinion” with Tatung’s leading investor, Shanyuan Group (三圓建設) chairman Wang Kuang-hsiang (王光祥), who informed Lin on Monday last week that he would be replaced.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
“I asked him why. What did I do wrong? He said: ‘Nothing, but it’s now a different time with different circumstances,’” said Lin, describing a conversation with Wang.
When asked to name a point of friction with Wang, Lin said that Wang wants to be Tatung vice chairman.
“He mentioned it at the very first board meeting. I told him it was on the table, but we have to amend some company by-laws first,” Lin said.
“As the largest shareholder, Wang thought his suggestion should be accepted, but there are possible legal ramifications,” he said.
Lin said that he did not know who would take over at Tatung, but an announcement is scheduled for today.
His picks for Tatung president, Tang Cheng-jen (湯政仁) and chief financial officer Chen Ming-nan (陳明男), have already tendered their resignations.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media weekly reported that Lin’s choices for president were questioned by former Tatung chairwoman Lin Kuo Wen-yen (林郭文艷), who remains on the board, citing lack of experience.
Tang was an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Tatung University for 17 years before founding a start-up, SourceTec Co (思源資訊).
Lin Wen-yuan, who is also chairman of Eastern Broadcasting Co (東森電視), said that he had “given it my all” in his effort to turn around the beleaguered company after being made chairman on Nov. 2.
He was brought in by Wang after a group of activist investors led by Wang wrested control of the company away from Lin Kuo Wen-yen, the last representative of the founding Lin family at Tatung.
At a news conference last month announcing Lin Wen-yuan’s appointment as chairman, he and Wang promised that it would be “a new Tatung” and the end of years of boardroom drama.
However, the relationship between the two has been “irreparably ruptured” by arguing over Tatung’s management, reports have said.
“It is not as bad as that, but it might be difficult for us to work together in the future,” Lin Wen-yuan said.
SEMICONDUCTOR SERVICES: A company executive said that Taiwanese firms must think about how to participate in global supply chains and lift their competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it expects to launch its first multifunctional service center in Pingtung County in the middle of 2027, in a bid to foster a resilient high-tech facility construction ecosystem. TSMC broached the idea of creating a center two or three years ago when it started building new manufacturing capacity in the US and Japan, the company said. The center, dubbed an “ecosystem park,” would assist local manufacturing facility construction partners to upgrade their capabilities and secure more deals from other global chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Micron Technology Inc and Infineon Technologies AG, TSMC said. It
NO BREAKTHROUGH? More substantial ‘deliverables,’ such as tariff reductions, would likely be saved for a meeting between Trump and Xi later this year, a trade expert said China launched two probes targeting the US semiconductor sector on Saturday ahead of talks between the two nations in Spain this week on trade, national security and the ownership of social media platform TikTok. China’s Ministry of Commerce announced an anti-dumping investigation into certain analog integrated circuits (ICs) imported from the US. The investigation is to target some commodity interface ICs and gate driver ICs, which are commonly made by US companies such as Texas Instruments Inc and ON Semiconductor Corp. The ministry also announced an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector. US measures such as export curbs and tariffs
The US on Friday penalized two Chinese firms that acquired US chipmaking equipment for China’s top chipmaker, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯國際), including them among 32 entities that were added to the US Department of Commerce’s restricted trade list, a US government posting showed. Twenty-three of the 32 are in China. GMC Semiconductor Technology (Wuxi) Co (吉姆西半導體科技) and Jicun Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co (吉存半導體科技) were placed on the list, formally known as the Entity List, for acquiring equipment for SMIC Northern Integrated Circuit Manufacturing (Beijing) Corp (中芯北方積體電路) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International (Beijing) Corp (中芯北京), the US Federal Register posting said. The
India’s ban of online money-based games could drive addicts to unregulated apps and offshore platforms that pose new financial and social risks, fantasy-sports gaming experts say. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government banned real-money online games late last month, citing financial losses and addiction, leading to a shutdown of many apps offering paid fantasy cricket, rummy and poker games. “Many will move to offshore platforms, because of the addictive nature — they will find alternate means to get that dopamine hit,” said Viren Hemrajani, a Mumbai-based fantasy cricket analyst. “It [also] leads to fraud and scams, because everything is now
RSS