Softbank Group Corp is in talks to sell the Paris-based robotics business behind its Pepper android to Germany’s United Robotics Group, according to sources and documents reviewed by Reuters, scaling back a business it once touted as a major growth driver.
The talks are ongoing and plans could change, said two sources familiar with the matter, who declined to be named as they are not permitted to speak to the media.
It is not clear whether Softbank would retain a stake in the business, nor how much the deal would be worth.
Photo: AFP
United Robotics Group, which is backed by German industrial robot maker Hahn, became the European master distributor for Softbank’s struggling Pepper and Nao robots this month.
United Robotics declined to comment. Softbank has said it remains committed to the Pepper business.
Reuters reported in June that Softbank had stopped production of Pepper and slashed jobs at its robotics business globally.
About half of 330 staff positions were cut in France, where operations date back to the 2012 acquisition of start-up Aldebaran, which custom-designed Pepper for Softbank.
LOW MORALE
Additional staff have quit because of low morale, forcing Softbank to advertise positions to fill core functions, according to the sources and a review of job postings.
United Robotics has offices in Germany and Austria. Recently departed Softbank staff in areas such as sales have been hired by the company, the sources said.
Softbank, which is riven by a culture divide between its European workforce and Japanese managers, has a dwindling stock of aging Pepper units and components approaching obsolescence, Reuters reported previously.
In addition to selling Pepper and Nao, a small humanoid robot, United Robotics also markets robots like Sawyer, an industrial robot that can operate alongside humans.
The restructuring comes as Softbank focuses on selling third-party hardware following the commercial failure of Pepper.
The conglomerate has created a parallel sales operation in Britain, reducing its reliance on the Paris-based business.
PLATO
Softbank engineers in France have been working on a secret project to design a serving robot called Plato, according to the sources and documents reviewed by Reuters.
However, managers in Japan have put off ordering the robot, the sources said.
At the same time, Softbank has struck deals to sell similar robots from outside firms, diminishing the commercial viability of its own product.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS