Business and Finance

Microsoft Taiwan opens cloud solution center for enterprises

Want China Times
Date: 2015-03-31
By: CNA

The Taiwan branch of Microsoft opened a cloud solution laboratory on Monday designed to help enterprises set up and run Internet of Things-style systems with its integrated Azure cloud services.

The Azure IoT Solutions Lab is aimed at helping enterprises store and analyze large amounts of data from millions of end-user devices by providing Microsoft’s Azure IoT Suite — a series of applications designed to cut deployment time for typical IoT use cases such as remote monitoring, asset management and predictive maintenance.

The Azure IoT Suite was announced March 16 at Microsoft’s annual conference for its business customers and will be available in a preview version by the end of this year.     [FULL  STORY]

Commercial real estate slips 3%, CBRE reports

CBRE TAIWAN:Central government property tax plans have fueled price correction predictions, and home transactions fell to a 12-year low last year

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 31, 2015
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

Commercial property transactions totaled NT$35.2 billion (US$1.12 billion) this quarter, down 3 percent from the same period last year, driven mainly by land deals, as no office buildings changed hands, CBRE Taiwan said yesterday.

The local branch of the US property consultancy attributed the sluggish market to unfavorable government policies related to property taxes and a yield requirement.     [FULL  STORY]

AirAsia adding flights between Taipei and Bali

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/03/30
By: Wang Shu-fen and Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, March 30 (CNA) AirAsia, Asia’s largest low-cost airline, announced that it was 201503300032t0001expanding service between Taipei and Bali beginning Monday to tap into the vacation travel market.

The route, operated by Indonesia AirAsia X, will now be served by four flights a week between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Ngurah Rai International Airport on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, according to the carrier.

The airline initially flew the new air link one day a week on Saturdays when it was first launched on Jan. 31, and added weekly Thursday flights on March 19.     [FULL  STORY]

Smart scooter firm plans Taipei debut

VROOM TO GROW:Taoyuan-based startup Gogoro Inc said that local governments have pledged their support as it aims to build a sustainable electric refueling system

Taipei Times
Date:  Mar 31, 2015
By: Lauly Li  /  Staff reporter

Taiwanese startup Gogoro Inc (睿能創意) plans to launch its first electric “smart scooter,” along

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je places a battery in a battery-swapping station at a news conference held by Gogoro Inc in Taipei yesterday to announce its plans to launch its first electric “smart scooter” along with battery-swapping stations in Taipei and New Taipei City this summer.  Photo: CNA

Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je places a battery in a battery-swapping station at a news conference held by Gogoro Inc in Taipei yesterday to announce its plans to launch its first electric “smart scooter” along with battery-swapping stations in Taipei and New Taipei City this summer. Photo: CNA

with a network of battery-swapping stations in Taipei and New Taipei City this summer, the firm said yesterday.

The Taoyuan-based company said Taipei and New Taipei City would be a global example of a more flexible and sustainable electric refueling system.

Gogoro plans to build a complete battery-swapping station network in Taiwan before moving on to other global destinations, company marketing chief Peng Ming-i (彭明義) told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference.     [FULL  STORY]

Four cafes in Taipei touted by Malaysian newspaper

Want China Times
Date: 2015-03-30
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

Four specialty cafes, all within walking distance of Taipei Metro stations, were singled out and

A coffee shop in Taipei. (File photo/Wang Ying-hao)

A coffee shop in Taipei. (File photo/Wang Ying-hao)

featured in the Malay Mail Online on Sunday.

Starting from Beimen station and walking toward Dadaocheng, a historic trading port in the 19th century, you can find the artisanal Luguo cafe in ArtYard, a cultural collective which is located in the renovated historic AS Watson & Co building, named after the first Watson’s pharmacy in Taiwan, said the report.

Customers may sip their carefully brewed coffee in the cafe, which is located on the second floor, away from the bustle of the streets below. The origin and flavors of the beans are explained with precision and pleasure.     [FULL  STORY]

CTBC targets growth of insurance general assets

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 30, 2015
By: Amy Su  /  Staff reporter

CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) aims to raise the general assets of its insurance business to NT$1 trillion (US$31.09 billion) in 2017 — a figure that would represent 25 percent of the financial holding firm’s total assets, a company executive said on Saturday.

The general assets of CTBC Financial’s insurance business — mainly CTBC Life Insurance Co Ltd (中國信託人壽) — now total about NT$350 billion, or 6 percent of the company’s total assets, according to the conglomerate, which has businesses in several areas including banking, insurance, securities, venture capital, asset management and lotteries.     [FULL  STORY]

Market watchers see slight TAIEX rise

CAUTION:Analysts said that there may be a rebound this week, but the performance of the local bourse is tied to foreign funds, which have been trimming their positions

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 30, 2015
By: Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The local bourse might stage a moderate rebound this week, but the pace is expected to be limited as investors turn cautious before domestic and international companies reveal their first-quarter earnings results, analysts said.

The TAIEX is likely to trade in a tight range this week after shedding 2.52 percent last week to 9,502.72 points, Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌投顧) chairman David Chu (儲祥生) said.     [FULL  STORY]

Intel acquisition of Altera not expected to hurt TSMC: analysts

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/03/29
By: Jackson Chang and Ted Chen

Taipei, March 29 (CNA) Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s 201503290015t0001largest contract chip maker, will likely not be affected by Intel Corp.’s rumored acquisition of chip making partner Altera Corp., industry analysts said Sunday.

Analysts familiar with Taiwan’s semiconductor sector said that because Altera has already shifted most of its orders to Intel from TSMC, the deal would not affect the bellwether Taiwanese company significantly.

TSMC already lost the business two years ago in 2013 when Altera, one of the world’s leading designers of field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), agreed to have Intel fabricate its 14-nanometer wafers and FPGA chips, industry insiders said.     [FULL  STORY]

New technology turns ‘solar industry waste into gold’

Want China Times
Date: 2015-03-28
By: CNA

Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) on Thursday announced that its innovative

Chen Wei-sheng. (File photo/China Times)

Chen Wei-sheng. (File photo/China Times)

process that refines solar industry waste into raw materials for steel has been awarded with a patent.

NCKU said that the sludge waste created by the solar industry must be processed by the waste disposal companies specializing in either liquid or solid form.

While ethylene glycol can be extracted from the liquid portion and sold as fuel, solid waste materials often have no other disposal methods than being buried at landfills.

Chen Wei-sheng, an assistant professor at NCKU’s Department of Resources Engineering who led the development effort said that the process involves the use of physical, chemical or diversified treatment methods to extract reusable silicon and carbonized silicon from waste sludge.     [FULL  STORY]

KGI Securities cuts target price on Acer shares

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/03/28
By: Lo Hsui-wen and Frances Huang

Taipei, March 28 (CNA) KGI Securities, one of the leading brokerages in Taiwan, has cut its 201503280016t0001target price for Acer Inc. even though the PC vendor turned a profit in 2014 after a three-year losing streak.

In a research report, KGI said that while Acer is expected to remain profitable in 2015, its growth momentum is expected to stay slow.

The brokerage said Acer’s earnings per share (EPS) for 2015 could rise slightly to NT$0.86 (US$0.03) from NT$0.66 seen a year earlier, but mostly because of an expected decline in losses resulting from the PC vendor’s non-core business investments.     [FULL  STORY]