Ambit Microsystems chairman Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) plan to branch out into the nation’s telecommunications service market suffered another setback yesterday, as the National Communications Commission (NCC) again rejected an application for a merger with Asia-Pacific Telecom.
In January, the commission denied the merger because APT did not provide additional information about its strategic partnership deal with Taiwan Mobile.
NCC spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said that Taiwan Mobile had raised its stake in Ambit, acquiring 14.99 percent of Ambit’s shares, and the merger of Asia-Pacific Telecom and Ambit would lead to Taiwan Mobile owning 3.45 percent of the shares in the post-merger firm.
According to the Telecommunications Act (電信法), Taiwan Mobile should file an additional application regarding its investment in the new company, which must be approved by the commission as well.
Separately, both Taiwan Mobile and Asia-Pacific Telecom must submit plans to address breaches of telecoms regulations, with the two firms sharing a core network under a roaming agreement, the commission said.
The commission ruled that the partnership does not meet the definition of a roaming agreement.
Yu said that the commission would review the merger only after it receives all three documents.
Earlier this year, both Asia-Pacific Telecom and Ambit moved the date of the merger from the end of June to the end of December.
Asia-Pacific Telecom said it would file a merger application as soon as possible after examining the commission’s requests, adding that it will quickly submit a plan to address the issue of its use of the core network.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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