■ TELECOMS
Oi announces purchase
Brazilian telecommunications group Oi announced on Friday it had bought out rival Brasil Telecom for US$3.5 billion. The agreement merges the two largest fixed-line telephone companies in Brazil and creates a giant that controls around 70 percent of the country’s telephone landlines. The new company will also control 18 percent of the mobile phone market and 43 percent of the broadband Internet market, according to company information released in February. Oi said the takeover depends on changes in the law that forbid one group to control two separate concessions.
■ TELECOMS
Wu to become chairman
First International Telecom Corp (大眾電信), the nation’s only mobile operator on PHS low-power systems, announced on Friday its president Charlie Wu (吳清源) would replace Ming Chien (簡明仁) as the company’s new chairman, while Chien will remain to serve a director on the board, the company said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Friday. Last month, First International Telecom raised NT$810 million (US$26.7 million) by selling about 90 million common shares to investors such as United Microelectronics Co (聯電) and Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達) in a bid to finance the deployment of a WiMAX network.
■ EXPORTS
Spain buying photovoltaics
The export of photovoltaic products to Spain grew 388.8 percent from the previous year to reach US$125 million in the first three months of the year, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Photovoltaic products also posted the largest growth in Taiwan’s total exports to Spain, the TAITRA said in a statement on Thursday. Total exports were recorded at US$520 million, up 49.14 percent from the same period the previous year, it said.
Taiwan would remain in the same international network for carrying out cross-border payments and would not be marginalized on the world stage, despite jostling among international powers, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday. Yang made the remarks during a speech at an annual event organized by Financial Information Service Co (財金資訊), which oversees Taiwan’s banking, payment and settlement systems. “The US dollar will remain the world’s major cross-border payment tool, given its high liquidity, legality and safe-haven status,” Yang said. Russia is pushing for a new cross-border payment system and highlighted the issue during a BRICS summit in October. The existing system
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to grow its revenue by about 25 percent to a new record high next year, driven by robust demand for advanced technologies used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications and crypto mining, International Data Corp (IDC) said yesterday. That would see TSMC secure a 67 percent share of the world’s foundry market next year, from 64 percent this year, IDC senior semiconductor research manager Galen Zeng (曾冠瑋) predicted. In the broader foundry definition, TSMC would see its market share rise to 36 percent next year from 33 percent this year, he said. To address concerns
Intel Corp chief financial officer Dave Zinsner said that a formal separation of the company’s factory and product development divisions is an open question that would be decided by the chipmaker’s next leader. Zinsner, who is serving as interim co-CEO following this month’s ouster of Pat Gelsinger, made the remarks on Thursday at the Barclays technology conference in San Francisco alongside co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus. Intel’s struggles to keep pace with rivals — along with its deteriorating financial condition — have spurred speculation that the next CEO would make dramatic changes. That has included talk of a split of the company’s manufacturing
PROTECTIONISM: The tariffs would go into effect on Jan. 1 and are meant to protect the US’ clean energy sector from unfair Chinese practices, the US trade chief said US President Joe Biden’s administration plans to raise tariffs on solar wafers, polysilicon and some tungsten products from China to protect US clean energy businesses. The notice from the Office of US Trade Representative (USTR) said tariffs on Chinese-made solar wafers and polysilicon would rise to 50 percent from 25 percent and duties on certain tungsten products would increase from zero to 25 percent, effective on Jan. 1, following a review of Chinese trade practices under Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974. The decision followed a public comment period after the USTR said in September that it was considering
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