What we know about the Taiwanese company involved in the Lebanon pager bomb attack

Deadly simultaneous explosions triggered by hundreds of pagers carried by Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon have thrust a little-known Taiwanese electronics maker into the global spotlight after its damaged products were identified in images following the attack.

At Gold Apollo’s offices on the outskirts of the Taiwanese capital, the company’s founder, Hsu Ching-kuang, vehemently denied Wednesday that he made the pagers used in the mass attack. He said the devices were made by a European company that had licensed his brand.

“Of course I feel like a victim,” Hsu told reporters shortly before police arrived to investigate. “I’ve been running my own business for 30 years, why am I suddenly involved in this?”

Several photos from Tuesday’s attacks showing damaged pagers branded as Gold Apollo have increased attention on the company, particularly after The New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources, that Israel had hidden explosives inside the devices and added a switch to each one, which was then used to detonate them remotely.

Pager production is highly regulated in Taiwan because of their transmission functions, with authorities conducting regular inspections, a senior Taiwanese security official told CNN on Wednesday.

Gold Apollo’s pagers met all standards and nothing unusual was found, according to the official, who did not provide further details about the inspection. Authorities are also investigating the company’s allegations that it has outsourced production to Europe, they added.

Gold Apollo has been manufacturing a wide range of devices from pagers (wireless devices that can send messages without an Internet connection, commonly used by emergency services and hospitals) to buzzers used by restaurants since its founding in 1995, according to the company’s website.

It works with distributors around the world to sell its products, the company said in a previous press report, once touting itself as one of the largest suppliers of walkie-talkies and pagers in the United States and Europe and counting intelligence agencies and emergency services among its customers.

Hsu said Wednesday that the pagers identified in media reports in Lebanon were manufactured and sold by a European partner, who established a relationship with his company about three years ago.

In a statement later in the day, Gold Apollo identified the distributor, a Budapest-based company called BAC Consulting, and said it had authorized the sale of its brand in designated regions.

“The design and manufacture of the products are the sole responsibility of BAC,” the press release states.

CNN attempted to reach BAC through the website that Gold Apollo provided to reporters.

Explosive pagers

According to images posted on social media from Lebanon, at least one pager displayed at the scene was identified as the Gold Apollo AR924 model, which is billed as a compact, waterproof device that uses a rechargeable lithium battery, according to product information on the company’s website.

Gold Apollo said in its statement that the AR924 pager was manufactured and sold by BAC, which was covered by a licensing agreement. The company declined to show CNN the contract.

Mr. Hsu explained that at the beginning of their relationship, the European partner only imported the Taiwanese company’s pagers and communication products. Later, the company told Gold Apollo it wanted to make its own pagers and asked for the right to use its brand, he added.

Hsu said Gold Apollo had encountered at least one anomaly in its dealings with the European company, citing a bank transfer that took a long time to clear.

“We may not be a big company, but we are a responsible company,” he said. “It’s very embarrassing.”

According to Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Gold Apollo shipped about 260,000 pagers from the island, mainly to the United States and Australia, between early 2022 and August 2024.

Taipei has no record of Gold Apollo pagers being sent to Lebanon, the ministry said in a statement, adding that it would continue its investigation.

Low-tech devices

The AR924 model is not available for sale in Taiwan, according to Taiwan’s top security official. Taiwanese telecommunications companies ended their pager services in 2011, citing a sharp decline in their use amid the growing popularity of mobile phones.

The AR924 is also not available in the United States, a representative for the company’s U.S. distributor told CNN.

The low-tech nature of the pagers appears to be a selling point for Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group based in Lebanon.

Earlier this year, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on members and their families in the south of the country, where fighting with Israeli forces across the border is raging, to give up their cell phones, believing that Israel could track the movements of the Iran-backed terror network through the devices.

According to Taiwan’s corporate registry, Hsu founded Gold Apollo with capital of NT$100 million ($3.1 million) in 1995.

At the time, pagers, known locally as “BB call,” were all the rage on the island. But the end of pager services by phone companies prompted the company to shift its focus from the domestic market to overseas, he told Taiwan’s Commonwealth Magazine in a 2011 interview.

Gold Apollo quickly dominated the pager market in Western countries, the magazine said. Most of the requests for its pagers came from intelligence agencies, fire departments and defense departments in the United States and Europe, including the FBI, the report said.

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