Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract manufacturer of chips, said it was in talks to make its first acquisition since 2007 as it seeks to reverse slowing growth.
The chipmaker is considering purchasing companies in the solar and light-emitting diode (LED) industries, chairman and chief executive officer Morris Chang (張忠謀) said in an interview on Monday. He did not identify acquisition targets or specify investment amounts.
“We can start out maybe first purchasing a small company, but use that as a nucleus for growth,” Chang, 78, said. “I think we have gotten into a situation where everybody seems to be really comfortable and not particularly hungry anymore.”
Chang, who replaced his handpicked successor as CEO in June, pledged to boost growth by moving into new businesses after the global recession drove the company to its worst profit drop in seven years.
Global sales of LEDs are projected to double over the next four years and solar-cell industry revenue is estimated to climb 45 percent in the four years from 2010.
TSMC last made an acquisition in 2007, when it bought a majority stake in Xintec Inc (精材科技).
The chipmaker’s sales have averaged 4 percent to 5 percent annual growth in the past five to six years, compared with more than 20 percent during the 1990s, Chang said.
“I think that we can grow faster than we have in the last five or six years,” Chang said. “Starting a new business is in itself a transformation, because so far we have just refused to look at it.”
Rick Tsai (蔡力行), who had been CEO for four years before he was replaced, now heads the company’s new business unit.
“I think that in the next few decades there will be a lot of opportunities for green businesses,” Chang said. “Solar cells and LEDs are both green businesses, and they also happen to be semiconductor businesses. They are not too far from our core strength.”
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