A week in China tech
Mobile / Wireless
- Customers send seven billion SMS messages in the first week of the Lunar New Year. Subscribers to China United Telecommunications and China Mobile logged over seven billion short messages in the first week of the Lunar New Year. Mainland mobile phone users sent about 80 billion short messages in all of last year.
Venture Capital / Investments
- NetEase.com, Sina.com and UTStarcom considering Hong Kong listings in a bid to tap Asian appetite for China-oriented shares. UTStarcom said it was also weighing a future listing in Hong Kong for similar reasons. The flurry of new listing considerations comes as many China-oriented technology shares trade near two-year highs on the Nasdaq.
Software
- Chinadotcom reports first-ever quarterly profit at least two quarters ahead of schedule, largely as a result of aggressive cost cutting. The move into the black, aided by non-operating gains rather than revenue growth, marked a milestone for the nascent Chinese internet industry as Chinadotcom became the last of the four US-listed Chinese Internet firms to turn a profit.
Information Technology
- Digital China posts higher nine-month profit, but revenues from its networking and systems integration units suffered sharp falls. Digital China, spun off from Chinese computer giant Legend Group in 2001, said on Thursday that its profits for the nine months to December 31 grew by 10.8 per cent to HK$145.35 million from the previous year.
Media, Entertainment and Gaming
- Nintendo says three January raids in southern China netted 300,000 counterfeit games, spotlighting the ongoing war by western firms against piracy in China. The games were seized at three factories in Guangdong province. Nintendo, maker of Game Boy hand-held consoles, seized one million counterfeit products last year, and backed 135 raids on Chinese factories that year.
A week in Taiwan tech
Telecommunications
- Taiwan government to sell up to 500 million shares - about 5% of its stake - in Chunghwa Telecom starting late this month. The ministry, which owns 82% of Chunghwa Telecom, will submit an application to the Securities and Futures Commission soon for the sale.
- Taiwan may allow foreigners to fully own local telephone companies, an official at the island's Ministry of Transportation and Communications said. The ministry has come up with some initial plans to ease its current restrictions on foreign holdings in local telecommunications firms, in preparation for the new rounds of World Trade Organization talks.
Semiconductors
- Local court grants ProMOS Technologies preliminary injunction that allows it to continue to develop, produce and sell dynamic random access memory chips and other semiconductor products using Infineon's technology. The court also ordered the German chipmaker not to block ProMOS' use of the technology.
- TSMC revenue last month rose 9% on year as shipments increased ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, to NT$13.13 billion ($378.8 million). However, analysts cautioned that part of the sales increase was because of rush orders. Revenue is also expected to decline in February because of fewer working days stemming from the extended holiday and the shorter month.
- TSMC receives new orders for its highest-end chip-making processes, which command higher margins. Altera, the U.S. maker of programmable chips used in communications networks, said it had placed orders for its Cyclone line of chips using Taiwan Semiconductor's high end 0.13-micron process.
A week in Singapore / Malaysia tech
Telecommunications
- SingTel reports 2% rise in fiscal third-quarter earnings. Boosted by a turnaround at its Australian operations and higher income from overseas associates, the company reported 296 million Singapore dollars ($171.1 million) net profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up from S$290 million a year ago. The results were roughly in line with forecasts.
Semiconductors
- Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing to close one plant and cut 500 jobs while making a bet on newer generation silicon wafers. Chartered Semiconductor said it expects to save about $25 million a year in costs when the closure of the Fab 1 15.2-centimeter wafer plant is complete by March 2004, helping it reduce exposure to chips using mature technologies whose orders are tapering off.
A week in Hong Kong tech
Telecommunications
- Market watchers skeptical of reports of PCCW interest in buying Japan Telecom, fearing that the heavily indebted carrier will face further financial pressure. Japanese newspaper reports quoted unidentified sources connected with the country's third-largest fixed-line operator as saying PCCW had surfaced as a strong candidate to buy the company.
Mobile / Wireless
- Sunday Communications to spend HK$130 million this year ahead of a possible 3G launch next year. The company spent HK$130 million last year and would spend a similar amount this year to improve its 2.5G network coverage, customer services and data services. Sunday's subscriber churn rate rose 1 per cent last year because of fierce market competition. Sunday has a subscriber base of 570,000.
Internet
- Tough competition affecting Reach, Telstra and PCCW's Internet infrastructure joint venture. Bill Scales, Telstra's group managing director for regulatory, corporate and human relations, said Reach is operating in a highly competitive environment due to the extensive networks now available but not fully utilized.
Venture Capital / Investments
- HKEx seeks clarification on PCCW chairman comments that suggested a further approach could be made for Britain's Cable & Wireless (C&W). It is understood HKEx asked the troubled telecommunications company if it would make an offer for C&W at the end of a six-month cooling-off period required by the British Takeover Panel.
- Compass Technology puts on hold plans to raise up to HK$215 million through a Hong Kong listing. The company, in which former Hutchison Whampoa managing director Simon Murray holds more than 25 per cent, is awaiting better market sentiment before proceeding to float shares on the Growth Enterprise Market. The listing will be delayed for at least a month.
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