Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體), the world’s biggest chip packager, yesterday said it had signed an agreement with Italian semiconductor assembly company EEMS Italia SpA to buy its Singapore chip testing asset for US$67.7 million in cash to expand capacity.
The agreement marks the latest expansion plan in a slew of merger-and-acquisition offers launched by the chip packaging and testing service provider in recent years.
ASE planned to buy EEMS Asia Pte Ltd, located in Singapore, through its Singaporean subsidiary ASE Singapore Pte Ltd, according to the Kaohsiung-based company’s filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
“We estimate 70 percent of EEMS’ business was supplying final tests for chip company Broadcom Corp’s wireless and enterprise networking businesses,” said Randy Abrams, a semiconductor analyst with Credit Suisse, in a report issued yesterday.
As Broadcom has grown into one of ASE’s top customers at a high single-digit percentage of sales, “this deal helps secure the customer relationship with more turnkey test and assembly services,” Abrams said.
Additionally, EEMS supplies some smaller customers into contract chipmaker GlobalFoundries’ Chartered fab and United Microelectronics Corp’s (聯電) plant in Singapore.
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