3M UK Limited will buy newly issued shares in Taiwan's Genius Electronic Optical for NT$481.4 million ($14.8 million), the company said Thursday. The deal sets up a partnership on optical communications. 3M will acquire 553,440 shares at NT$869.6 each, giving it about 4.68% of the company. It is Genius Electronic Optical's first private placement; the funds will go to working capital, debt repayment, and future business development. The partnership will target AI data centres and high-performance computing. Genius is developing co-packaged optics components, with staged mass production planned for 2027 and 2028. Revenue in the first nine months of the year rose 10.1% to NT$19.6 billion. Its shares closed up 4.69% at NT$1,115.

Taiwanese lens maker Genius Electronic Optical (3406) has agreed a strategic partnership with 3M to develop, make and expand capacity for optical communications products. 3M plans to invest $150 million (about NT$4.81 billion) in a private placement. It will buy 5,534,440 new common shares at NT$869.6 each, giving it a stake of about 4.68%. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions. Genius will use the proceeds for working capital, repaying bank loans, and future funding needs. The two firms aim to target high-speed optical communications, AI data centres, and high-performance computing. A European brokerage said Genius could qualify as a leading fibre array unit module supplier for Nvidia's co-packaged optics project. Unlike rival Largan, it focuses on high-precision optical components inside the modules.

High dividend yields can hide weak payouts, and a four-step test helps separate real income from traps. It checks earnings with one-offs stripped out, full-year free cash flow against dividends, management's explanation, and whether debt funds the gap. Ford yields 4.99% and shows a trailing EPS of -$1.88, caused by $4.2B in one-time charges. Its debt-to-equity of 4.66 leaves the $0.60 dividend exposed to a downturn. Pfizer yields 6.03%, but its free cash flow yield is 5.60%. Clorox's roughly $405M of free cash flow fell short of about $601M in dividends. Whirlpool fails every step. It cut its quarterly dividend from $1.75 to $0.90 in 2025, paid no common dividend in the second quarter of 2026, and its shares are down 59.48% since the end of 2025. 3M and Dow pass, with payouts now covered by cash.