Analysts hail SiS' chipmaking spin-off

Industry watchers yesterday welcomed plans by chip designer and manufacturer Silicon Integrated Systems Corp (SiS, 矽統科技) to spin off its manufacturing arm and concentrate instead on its circuit design business.

"This is good news for SiS as the impression from investors is that the company has not managed to break even since it opened the fab [in 2000]," said George Wu (吳裕良), an analyst at Primasia Securities Co in Taipei.

Concentrating on design should bring the company back to profitability, Wu said.

SiS made the announcement on earlier this week that it would spin off its chip-making business, or fab, as SiS Microelectronics Co (矽統半導體) by Dec. 15.

The move may be another step in a takeover of SiS' fab by rival United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) which bought a 14-percent stake in the company in January this year.

UMC's vice chairman John Hsuan (宣明智) is slated to be chair-man of the board at the new firm.

"With such a clear partition on expertise, the company can speed up operation efficiency and elevate [its] competitiveness as a whole," Hsuan said in a statement.

Rick Hsu (徐禕成), a chip industry analyst at Nomura Securities in Taipei, said UMC's next step may be to buy a controlling stake in SiS' fab and may eventually disassemble the equipment and move it to China.