Advanced LCD technologies are the most crucial assets among Sharp Corp’s various businesses and the major reason behind Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) quest to acquire the Japanese firm over the past four years, analysts said.
The US$3.5 billion deal announced on Wednesday will help fulfill Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou’s (郭台銘) goal to develop high-definition LCD panels for mobile devices and deepen its partnership with Apple Inc, analysts said ahead of a signing ceremony for the deal in Osaka, Japan, today.
“Sharp’s technology strength in small and medium-sized LCD panels is the focus of Hon Hai,” Digitimes Research analyst Jason Yang (楊仁杰) said in a report released on Wednesday.
Combining Sharp’s LCD technology, Hon Hai will rapidly enhance its technological capabilities, particularly in advanced active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) panel technology, Yang said.
“AMOLED technology is highly possible the major reason behind Hon Hai’s nonstop pursuit of Sharp as next-generation iPhones are likely to adopt such advanced displays. Hon Hai has to cater to Apple’s need,” Yang said.
Sharp is targeted to ramp up a AMOLED production in the second half of 2018, he said.
Some industry watchers said AMOLED technology could become the new display technology for high-end smartphone in the near future, as Samsung Display Inc has been selling more AMOLED panels to Chinese handset makers and there has been increasing activity on AMOLED research for future iPhones.
Gou has long viewed flat panels a essential force to the company’s broader plan to manufacture screens for mobile phones, tablets and TVs. In 2012, he used his own capital to acquire a 37 percent share of Sharp’s LCD manufacturing arm, Sakai Display Products Corp (SDP), which operates the world’s first and biggest 10G LCD panel plant in Osaka.
In Taiwan, Hon Hai has been trying to expand to advanced low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) panel manufacturing through its subsidiary Innolux Corp (群創), which is scheduled to ramp up an LTPS production line in Kaohsiung this quarter.
However, the progress at Innolux is not fast enough for Hon Hai to catch up with rivals such as LG Display Co and Japan Display Inc (JDI), Eric Chiou (邱宇彬), a senior research director of WitsView, a division of TrendForce Corp (集邦科技), said on Thursday by telephone.
Sharp, LG Display and JDI are major LTPS panel suppliers for Apple’s iPhones and other brands’ high-end smartphones.
Last year, Sharp held an 18 percent share of global LTPS market, according to TrendForce data.
“The acquisition of Sharp will give an immediate boost to Hon Hai’s LTPS capacity,” Chiou said, adding that the Japanese firm’s technology support will also help Hon Hai’s LCD subsidiaries shorten their learning curves and ramp up production of LTPS displays.
Hon Hai is planning to invest ¥200 billion (US$1.8 billion) in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology over the next three years, according to a document obtained from Sharp related to Hon Hai’s purchase of a 66 percent stake.
That investment may go toward OLED production lines that the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday are being set up in the SDP plant.
“The Sharp deal will allow Hon Hai to provide one-stop shopping services for Apple by expanding its services to panel supply from hardware assemby, and it will also attract more orders from other handset vendors,” Chiou said.
Overall, the Sharp deal is a “long-term positive” for Hon Hai, Daiwa-Cathay Capital Markets Co (大和國泰證券) analyst Kylie Huang (黃奎毓) said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last