■FINANCE
Fubon Life to invest in TMC
Fubon Financial Holding Co (富邦金控) said on Friday its life insurance unit would buy 80 million shares, or a 7.27 stake, in Taiwan Memory Co (TMC, 台灣創新記憶體公司) for NT$800 million (US$24.8 million). The company said it planned to raise funds for Fubon Life Insurance Co’s (富邦人壽) long-term investment in TMC in the fourth quarter of this year, but did not say how. In July, TMC registered with the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ commerce department with an initial capital of NT$500,000. The government-backed memory chipmaker is expected to initially raise NT$11 billion in funds from public and private investors. Besides Fubon Life, TMC has secured investments from chip-testing and packaging firms Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and King Yuan Electronics Co Ltd (京元電子).
■TECHNOLOGY
Ballmer to visit Taipei
Microsoft Corp CEO Steve Ballmer will host a technology forum, dubbed “3 Screens and a Cloud,” in Taipei early next month, the company said on Friday. It will be Ballmer’s first visit to Taiwan after taking over Bill Gates as the company’s chief executive. During the forum, Ballmer is expected to share the company’s view on corporate strategies to remain competitive in the tech arena and how the Cloud platform would facilitate seamless Internet connection via handsets, PCs, TVs and other devices. Ballmer also plans to visit Microsoft’s local partners and to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary.
■FINANCE
PRC to launch ChiNext
China will launch its long-awaited NASDAQ-style ChiNext board in Shenzhen on Friday, state media reported yesterday. Shang Fulin (尚福林), chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, announced the start date of the growth enterprise market at a forum in Beijing, Xinhua news agency reported. The first batch of 28 companies will make their debut on Friday, Xinhua said. Regulators hope the new market will help fuel start-ups and other companies with high-growth potential in the world’s third-largest economy, following the example of Wall Street’s Nasdaq.
■AVIATION
JAL seeking partners
Struggling Japan Airlines (JAL) is seeking a tie-up with low-cost carriers for its Asian operations, the Asahi Shimbun said yesterday. JAL, looking for another public bailout to keep flying, is putting together an emergency turnaround plan under the supervision of a government task force. In its cost-cutting efforts, JAL will expand code-sharing operations with budget carriers in Asia, replacing its less profitable flights for tourist destinations, such as Hawaii, Thailand and Indonesia, Asahi said. The move would enable JAL to focus on more profitable business flights to North America, Europe and China, the daily said without citing sources.
■TELECOMS
CEO not quitting over deaths
The CEO of France Telecom, who is under fire for continued suicides among company employees, said he would not resign. Didier Lombard said in an interview in Le Figaro yesterday that a captain couldn’t abandon the ship in a storm. He said he must ensure that France Telecom becomes a “human and prosperous” enterprise. His term runs until 2011. Le Figaro quoted him as saying he was “aghast” at the latest suicide. The company said on Thursday that an employee at its research and development center in Brittany had committed suicide at his home — the 25th in 18 months.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the