United Microelectronics Corp's (UMC,
This will enable Oki Electric to focus on its know-how, marketing and customer relationships while leveraging Faraday's silicon intellectual properties (IPs) as well as UMC Japan's (UMCJ) chip manufacturing capabilities, a joint statement released yesterday said.
"We are looking forward to Faraday's input on the above 90-nanometer IPs, design services and back-end support to bring more cost-effective solutions to the market," Masahiko Morioka, president of Silicon Solutions Company at Oki Electric, said in the statement.
Tokyo-based OKI -- a telecommunications, semiconductors and printing company -- struck its first partnership with UMC in 2003, outsourcing its application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design and IP design to UMC's Japanese subsidiary.
Given its extensive IP pool optimized for UMC's process technologies, the Hsinchu-based Faraday, a silicon IP and ASIC vendor, is the optimal choice for expanding the partnership, the statement said.
"Faraday will benefit from Oki's global brand, its Japanese market channels and long-term relationship with its customers," Faraday CEO Lin Hsiao-pin (林孝平) said.
Last year, Faraday's sales declined 3.5 percent to NT$5.5 billion (US$166.9 million) from a year earlier, while last month its sales remained flat at NT$403 million.
UMC saw last year's sales rise 14.6 percent to NT$104 billion, with last month's revenues dropping 7 percent to NT$8.4 billion.
In a bid to boost return of equity, UMC's board approved last Tuesday a proposal to pay back NT$57.4 billion -- or NT$3 per share -- to its shareholders by canceling 5.74 billion outstanding shares, or 30 percent of its overall 19.13 billion issued equity.
It denied speculation that the move would pave the way for a buyout deal from overseas private equity fund investors.
Shares of Faraday closed up 1 percent to NT$78.4 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, while UMC rose 0.3 percent to NT$21.15.
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