Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, has proposed to spend ￥300 billion (US$2.5 billion) to acquire financially struggling electronics firm Sharp Corp, according to Japan’s Kyodo news agency.
The report posted on Friday said that the proposed acquisition price is about 50 percent higher than the Japanese company’s current market value, indicating that Hon Hai wants to use the good offer to gain the upper hand and win consensus from the Japanese firm during acquisition negotiations.
According to the report, while Hon Hai — known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康) outside Taiwan — has proposed acquiring Sharp at a high premium, it also wants Sharp’s current management team, including president and chief executive officer Kozo Takahashi, to step down.
Hon Hai would send a team to Sharp to manage the firm, the report said.
Hon Hai also plans to take over the debt shouldered by Sharp to help the firm address its financial problems, the report said.
However, the report also said that Hon Hai has yet to talk with Sharp’s bank creditors.
The report said that Sharp was shouldering about ￥760 billion in debt as of the end of September.
Hon Hai is not the only potential suitor seeking to buy Sharp, the report said, adding that the Innovation Network Corp of Japan (INCJ), which is sponsored by the Japanese government, is studying a buyout of Sharp.
The report said that the INCJ still needs some time to map out a concrete acquisition deal, and the proposal is unlikely to come out until next year, so Hon Hai is taking advantage of the vacuum created to make a deal.
According to the report, the INCJ is discussing whether it would spin off Sharp’s LCD production operations and then integrate the operations with the INCJ’s small and medium-sized flat-panel unit, Japan Display Inc (JDI).
The INCJ owns a 35 percent stake in JDI.
Although Hon Hai proposed spending ￥300 billion to acquire Sharp, the Kyodo report said that the Taiwanese firm’s previous proposal to raise its stake in Sharp’s flatscreen plant, Sakai Display Products Corp in Osaka’s Sakai City, is still valid.
In July 2012, Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), in a personal capacity, acquired a 37.6 percent stake in the advanced display panel plant from Sharp, which now holds a 37.6 percent share.
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
Huawei Technologies Co (華為) said it has come up with a new pathway to shorten its gap with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), potentially achieving a breakthrough in making advanced semiconductors without cutting-edge equipment. Right now there is about a five-year gap between what TSMC is capable of and what Huawei, together with its manufacturing partner Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (中芯), can produce. Huawei is to start making 1.4-nanometer chips by 2031 with its own “LogicFolding” technology, Huawei semiconductor chief He Tingbo (何庭波) said in a rare public appearance during a chip conference yesterday, while TSMC has
RSS