The Investment Commission yesterday rejected audio electronics maker Merry Electronics Co’s (美律) proposed sale of a 25.4 percent stake in the company to a Chinese connector supplier, saying that the deal might have a negative impact on the nation’s audio electronics industry.
In December last year, Merry announced that it wanted to sell 63 million shares worth NT$3.78 billion (US$117.08 million) to Luxshare Precision Industry Co (立訊) in a bid to secure funds for technical upgrades and capacity expansion.
Through the deal, Luxshare would have become the largest shareholder in Merry and have taken three seats on the company’s seven-seat board. Merry’s management team has a combined 20 percent stake in the firm.
“We believe Luxshare is not going to invest, but acquire Merry, which we think would have a negative effect on Taiwan’s audio electronics industry,” Investment Commission Executive Secretary Emile Chang (張銘斌) told a news conference.
Chang said that excluding the two independent board seats, the Chinese company would have controlled three of the other five seats on Merry’s board.
In other words, Luxshare would have had de facto control of Merry through the deal, Chang said.
Merry, the nation’s leading audio electronics company, produces headphones, speakers, microphones, batteries and personal sound amplifiers. It has a 54 percent market share in the nation’s headphones market, according to Industrial Development Bureau statistics.
Chang said that given that Luxshare is a privately owned Chinese enterprise with no military or government backing, the commission rejected the deal simply due to concerns over industry development, not because of national security concerns.
Chang said the commission understood that Merry planned to raise its competitiveness amid rising Chinese competition through Luxshare’s investment, but he suggested that Taiwanese companies that have similar ideas should emulate the cooperation agreement of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密).
“We hope more Taiwanese companies can form ‘national teams’ like ASE and SPIL to jointly fight intensified international competition,” Chang said.
Merry, which submitted its application to the commission in March this year, had high hopes of obtaining approval from the government for the deal as Luxshare could have helped expand its market share in China and have brought positive effects to the company as early as from the second half of this year.
Merry chairman Liao Lu-li (廖祿立) on Wednesday told a shareholders’ meeting that the company had encountered significant challenges in its operations last year and some of its major clients had agreed that the deal with Luxshare would benefit the company’s operations.
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