Taiwan's Toppoly Optoelectronics Corp (
Toppoly, established in 1999, makes thin-film-crystal (TFT) liquid-crystal-display (LCD) screens used in a wide range of products, including mobile phones, pocket PCs, and displays in cars and notebook computers.
"The merger will give a boost to Toppoly in vying for the top place in the world's small and medium-sized display panels in the long run, after the two companies' customers, technologies and products are integrated," Toppoly chairman Ray Chen (
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The new entity, renamed TPO, will boost monthly output to around 10 million units of displays sized under 10 inches, from Toppoly's current 3.8 million units, Chen said.
With a combined 11 percent market share, TPO will overtake Japan's Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corp as the world's No.3 supplier of the world's small and medium-sized displays, according to statistics provided by market researcher DisplaySearch.
Samsung SDI Co of South Korea occupies the top place in the world's small and medium display market, while Wintek Corp (
Toppoly will issue new shares worth NT$7.4 billion in exchange for Philips Mobile Display System's factories, research division and patents, the company said.
Philips, the world's No.4 supplier of displays in the small and medium-sized segment, will hold 17.5 percent of the new entity, with total capital of NT$42.3 billion, Chen said.
Kinpo Group (
Toppoly expects to wrap up the acquisition in the first half of next year at the latest, after the two companies obtain the approval of shareholders and securities regulators, Chen said.
Chen said Toppoly will start making a profit in the second half of next year after some six years of operation. Toppoly lost NT$2 billion in the first nine months of this year.
Philips' mobile display unit was profitable in the first half of this year with US$400 million in revenue, but swung to losses in the third quarter amid stiff competition, the company said. The unit, headquartered in Hong Kong, has factories in both Shanghai and Shenzhen, as well as Kobe, Japan. It also has a research and development center in Shanghai.
"The deal sounds okay. I think Toppoly is aiming for Philips' customer base, which will help the company deepen its presence in the small-and-medium screen panel market," said Wang Wanli (王萬里), an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston's local branch.
Customer base is crucial for small-and-medium display makers as the screens are mostly custom-made and qualification procedures take at least six months, Wang said.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
STILL LOADED: Last year’s richest person, Quanta Computer Inc chairman Barry Lam, dropped to second place despite an 8 percent increase in his wealth to US$12.6 billion Staff writer, with CNA Daniel Tsai (蔡明忠) and Richard Tsai (蔡明興), the brothers who run Fubon Group (富邦集團), topped the Forbes list of Taiwan’s 50 richest people this year, released on Wednesday in New York. The magazine said that a stronger New Taiwan dollar pushed the combined wealth of Taiwan’s 50 richest people up 13 percent, from US$174 billion to US$197 billion, with 36 of the people on the list seeing their wealth increase. That came as Taiwan’s economy grew 4.6 percent last year, its fastest pace in three years, driven by the strong performance of the semiconductor industry, the magazine said. The Tsai
RSS