Taiwanese tech mogul donates $454 million to fight cancer
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(InfoWorld) - The chairman of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, which assembles gadgets from AppleÂ iPods to Nintendo's Wii game console, pledged NT$15 billion (US$454.4 million) to Taiwan's most prestigious university to build a new cancer ward and fund research against the disease. Terry Gou, chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., which operates under the trade name Foxconn, signed a memorandum of understanding with the president of National Taiwan University on Tuesday in Taipei, a spokesman at his company said. The majority of the donation, NT$10 billion, will go towards building a 500-bed clinic for cancer patients, while the remainder has been earmarked for cancer-related biomedical research at the National Taiwan University Hospital. Cancer is a personal issue for Gou. His wife died of complications related to breast cancer two years ago, and his younger brother passed away from leukemia at a hospital in China this past July. In giving the gift, the Taiwanese mogul joins other major technology industry philanthropists on a growing chorus of giving. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, for example, has pledged much of his multi-billion dollar fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, CEO Steve Ballmer, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, and OracleÂ founder and CEO Larry Ellison have all graced the pages of Forbes Magazine's list of top philanthropists.
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(InfoWorld) - The world's largest contract chip maker plans to invest up to NT$5.55 billion (US$168.3 million) in a smaller partner to strengthen their alliance and continue to farm out orders for certain chips to the company. The deal will see Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. increase its stake in Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp. by up to 11 percent in coming weeks. TSMC currently holds a 26.8 percent share of the company, but has no intention of merging with Vanguard, it said in a statement. TSMC will continue to depend on Vanguard to handle certain chip-related work done in older 8-inch chip plants. TSMC has focused its new factory investment on 12-inch factories, which use larger, 12-inch silicon wafers during production. The company still invests in upgrades for its 8-inch plants, but has tried to avoid buying new production lines for the technology, which is slowly going out of use. Vanguard has put its 8-inch plants to use making specialty chips, including contact image sensors (CIS) and driver chips used in LCD (liquid crystal display) products such as monitors and LCD TVs. In March, Vanguard agreed to buy two 8-inch chip factories from Winbond Electronics Corp. with total production of 40,000 wafers per month. Hundreds of chips can be made on a single 8-inch wafer. By expanding its production, Vanguard can continue to take some orders from TSMC clients as well as increase its overall business. The two companies enjoy a close working relationship. TSMC may also be buying the stake because a Taiwan government investment fund, the Executive Yuan's Development Fund, wants to sell, according to Warren Lau, a chip analyst at Macquarie Research Equities in Hong Kong. The Development Fund still holds a 26.5 percent stake in Vanguard, and Lau believes that TSMC plans to buy a large portion of the government stake to raise its holding in Vanguard to as much as 50 percent. And it's a good investment: VIS may be the most profitable contract chip maker in the business, Lau said.
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An $18 million grant awarded to the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy will help in the treatment of bone marrow cancer and in the search for a cure, doctors say.
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Sir Tom Hunter, one of the UK's most successful entrepreneurs, pledges to give away at least Â£1bn to charity.
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Microsoft Chair Bill Gates has contributed $400,000 to the campaign to support a California initiative that would provide the state with nearly $3 billion in funding for human embryonic stem cell research, the AP/San Jose Mercury News reports (Elias, AP
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Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing has donated 65 million US dollars to an elite Singapore graduate school named after his friend, the city-state's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, a press statement said Thursday.
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BEIJING -- Every few days, Houston businessman Richard Weissenborn receives injections of a radical new cancer drug at a hospital here.
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Finding a cure for a major disease like cancer or AIDS is among the lofty objectives of an initiative launched by IBM (NYSE: IBM). The tech giant is constructing a World Community Grid (WCG) and enlisting the help of the world's computer users.
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A man receiving Â£300,000 from a health trust after his wife dies following an 'all-clear' wants an overhaul of cancer screening.
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Three months after Alexandra Scott died of cancer at age 8, her goal of raising &#36;1 million for cancer research this year by selling lemonade has been surpassed.
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MASSACHUSETTS The Boston Celtics, Boston Scientific, and Intel have joined the tsunami relief effort. The Intel Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Intel Corporation, has raised its donation from $100,000 to $1 million to aid victims. Intel employees in Hudson are expected to set up tables to raise additional funds. The Foundation is expected to match employee donations. The Boston Celtics ...
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Cancer was the biotech's biggest success story. Now to keep growing, it needs to branch out.
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The University of Michigan is accelerating its search for a cure for Type I diabetes, thanks to a $44 million donation - the largest ever to the health system and the second-largest in UM history.
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For the company that helps urologists set up radiation technology called I.M.R.T., making money is a highly desired side effect of prostate cancer treatment.
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TORONTO (CP) - Two prominent Canadian families donated a total of $33 million to help in the fight against cancer Monday. auto parts billionaire Frank Stronach respectively donated $25 million and $8 million in two separate announcements.
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The founder of Business Wire, an electronic distributor of news releases, donated $33 million to help Stanford University build a stem cell research center, the school announced Tuesday.
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HSBC (0005.HK) will receive  T$47.5 billion ($1.5 billion) in Taiwan government funds and  make a major cash infusion to rescue the failed Chinese Bank,  in the latest Taiwan acquisition by a major foreign bank.