German semiconductor company Infineon Technologies AG signed an agreement yesterday to acquire the local integrated circuit design firm ADMtek Inc (上元科技) for 80 million euros in cash (US$100 million).
Munich-based Infineon noted that it is the company's first acquisition of a controlling stake in a semiconductor company in Asia.
It said that a new company, Infineon-ADMtek Co Ltd, will be set up in Hsinchu to focus on developing broadband customer premise equipment (CPE) integrated circuits and will enable Infineon to enter the rapidly-growing home gateway market in the Asian region.
"ADMtek's complementary competencies and technologies will enable us to successfully compete in the broadband CPE market with a complete system solution," said Thomas Seifert, head of Infineon's Wireline Communications business group.
Infineon said the deal also calls for it to supply products to Accton Technology Corp (
"With Infineon's technology support, I believe ADMtek will be able to expand its product lines," said ADMtek chairman Ken Lu (盧崑瑞).
The 80-million euro deal means that every ADMtek share was priced at about NT$62 to NT$65, Lu said.
ADMtek is expected to report US$43.2 billion in revenues for last year, but that will only allow the company to break even, he said.
Accton shares rose by 5.82 percent to end at NT$30.9 each on the TAIEX yesterday.
Infineon said the venture will strengthen its leading position in the fast-growing, broadband access market segment and also provides Infineon with a strong research and development base, favorable costs, and proximity to the leading original design manufacturing companies of Taiwan.
The broadband access market has topped 100 million users, according to recent studies. These users want advanced broadband services and delivering these services requires a single, easy-to-use and inexpensive home gateway, said Seifert.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in April, subject to ADMtek shareholders approval and various government approvals, including the competent anti-trust authorities.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
France is developing domestic production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries with an eye on industrial independence, but Asian experts are proving key in launching operations. In the Verkor factory outside the northern city of Dunkirk, which was inaugurated on Thursday, foreign specialists, notably from South Korea and Malaysia, are training the local staff. Verkor is the third battery gigafactory to open in northern France in a region that has become known as “Battery Valley.” At the Automotive Energy Supply Corp (AESC) factory near the city of Douai, where production has been under way for several months, Chinese engineers and technicians supervise French recruits. “They
RSS