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To: Tom Doughty who wrote (29919)	12/13/1997 1:35:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Respond to of 31386

{Asia] Tom -- Thanks for the links the the Asia articles. There's certainly a lot riding on the IMF and I suspect next week will be a repeat of today, caution, hesitancy, nervousness, volatility. Right now I'm burning candles at a TI icon. :)) Night -- Pat

To: Tom Doughty who wrote (29919)	12/13/1997 1:43:00 AM
From: pat mudge	Respond to of 31386

[e-commerce stats] This was posted on the CheckFree thread and should be of interest here, as well: exchange2000.com Pat

To: Tom Doughty who wrote (29919)	12/13/1997 5:08:00 PM
From: JW@KSC	Respond to of 31386

Industry will go from 6.4bn today to $500bn according to Dataquest Just started looking into this, here's what I have so far. Opinions/Comments? JW@KSC Anyone know how to get a quote from the Taiwan Stock Exchange? tse.com.tw Silicon foundry output to double (snip) Silicon foundries could account for half the world's total production of silicon by 2010, says a report from US market analysts Dataquest. The growth of fabless design houses means that the annual output of foundries will more than double in the next four years from today's $6.46bn to $15.46bn, says the report. By 2010, the world semiconductor market is expected to be worth $1trillion (a thousand billion). That suggests meteoric expansion from the $15bn of 2001 to the $500bn of 2010. electronicsweekly.co.uk Equity Stakes in UMC Joint Ventures are Enormous Hidden Assets for the Value Investor Technology Many semiconductor companies subcontract their integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing to independent foundries to avoid the significant capital investment required for wafer fabrication facilities -- they do not own their "fabs." Companies that own fabrication facilities and manufacture semiconductor ICs, or wafers, for fabless semiconductor companies are called foundries. Two of the largest foundries in the world are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC). Both companies have production facilities in Taiwan and are publicly traded on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The business models of TSMC and UMC are quite different. The TSMC model is based on contractual agreements in which a fabless semiconductor company secures wafer capacity by either negotiating a wafer purchase agreement up front and paying a fixed amount which guarantees a certain amount of capacity, or engaging in an option for the right to future foundry capacity. In either case, the fabless company is protected from rising wafer prices for the duration of the contract -- typically six months to a few years. hambrecht.com This URL is also a good tool. hambrecht.com varian.com (snip) PALO ALTO, Calif., -- March 12, 1997 -- Varian Associates, Inc., announced today that it has received top honors in a supplier awards program sponsored by United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), Hsinchu, Taiwan. The award recognized Varian's achievements in meeting UMC support requirements for their new state-of-the-art Fab 3 located in Hsinchu Science Industrial Park, Taiwan. UMC Senior Vice President, Dr. Frank Wen devised the program as a means of promoting strong commitment to quality from all of the suppliers that are critical in keeping the fab running at top productivity. Under the program, the UMC senior management team rates vendors quarterly on five key factors critical to uptime and yield. The first top award was given to Varian for the quarter ending December 31, 1996. According to Dr. Wen, "We produce very sophisticated devices in Fab 3 with high yield, and our customers demand top productivity. When one piece of equipment fails, every minute and every hour costs UMC and our customers thousands of U.S. dollars. We must have suppliers who understand this and strive in every way to keep us up and running efficiently." TSMC to Pay Dividend of NT$5/Share in '97 (snip) December 12, 1997 (TAIPEI) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TSMC), plans to pay a minimum NT$5 dividend per share in 1997 and NT$6 in 1998, the company said. TSMC hopes the move will boost its share capital to an estimated NT$98 billion, or up more than 100 percent from the current level of about NT$40 billion. TSMC said it expects its share capital to exceed NT$100 billion by 1999. TSMC, which was recently voted "best domestic enterprise" in a public opinion poll, was established 10 years ago. In 1987, Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands purchased 30 percent of the company. Philips has reaped nearly NT$200 billion in total profits from its investment. japanbiztech.com