Asustek agrees a share-swap deal to acquire Askey

Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), the world's largest manufacturer of computer motherboards, announced yesterday that it will acquire Askey Computer Corp (亞旭電腦), a wireless local area network (LAN) equipment maker, through a 100 percent share-swap.

To be completed by March 1 next year, the share-swap will see Asustek release 72.38 million new shares, with seven Askey shares to be traded for one Asustek share.

After that, Askey will be delisted from the Taiwan Stock Exchange and become a 100 percent owned subsidiary under Asustek, the companies said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

Currently, Askey is the world's top Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modem maker and No. 2 cable modem maker, while Asustek is the No. 3 cable modem maker.

The share swap deal is expected to help both companies to expand their business scope in the network communications field, at the same time integrating product lines, complementing cliente base, research capability and resources, as well as boosting competitiveness, the statement said.

This is the second such deal involving Asustek in the last two weeks. On Friday last week, it announced it would form a strategic alliance with Advantech Co (研華), an industrial computing service provider, through a share-swap by the end of the year.

Under that deal, Asustek will issue roughly 60 million new shares in exchange for about 67 million Advantech shares, with each Asustek share being traded for 1.13 Advantech shares.