The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday said it was suspending its review of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s (ASE, 日月光半導體) bid to take over rival Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) because the deal has fallen through.
The commission’s decision meant a victory for SPIL in the high-profile ownership battle, as ASE is now barred from launching a new round of tender offers to fully acquire SPIL within a year as the Company Act (公司法) stipulates.
However, ASE, the world’s largest chip packaging and testing services provider, is not likely to give up so soon.
ASE released a statement saying it will continue with our plan to acquire 100 percent equity interest in SPIL through all legally permissible means and avenues.”
The industrial consolidation will help the company cope with “intense and constant changes in the global semiconductor industry, as well as to ensure the sustained development of the Taiwanese semiconductor packaging and testing supply chain,” it said.
The FTC said in a statement that as “ASE’s tender offer has expired on March 17, there is no chance that the merger will happen. As a result, the commission will stop reviewing the case.”
ASE’s acquisition of a major stake in SPIL has raised anti-trust concerns and fears that the merger would undermine competition in the market.
The FTC on March 16, one day before the March 17 expiry date, said that the deal was complicated, and that before clarifying certain issues related to the potential merger, it could not decide whether it would approve the deal.
The FTC’s announcement essentially meant that the deal could not be completed.
On March 17, ASE said formally that the tender offer could not go through.
The commission’s approval is one of the deciding factors for ASE to clinch the NT$42.35 billion (US$1.3 billion) deal, along with a minimal purchase threshold of 5 percent of 770 million proposed SPIL shares.
The transaction, if approved, would help ASE expand its holding to 49 percent from the current 25 percent and pave the way for a full acquisition.
“We deeply regret and are extremely baffled by the FTC’s decision, which is completely without legal basis and violates the FTC’s own administrative precedents,” ASE said in the statement.
SPIL, which has repeatedly urged the commission to terminate the review of the acquisition deal since March 16, welcomed the FTC’s decision.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS