MStar Semiconductor Inc (開曼晨星), a Taiwanese-founded chip designer, said yesterday it had obtained patent licensing from an unspecified foreign company for monitor and TV chips.
As the two parties have signed a non-disclosure agreement, MStar declined to reveal which foreign company has licensed the MStar patents for the use of monitor and TV chip designs, or any other details about the licensing agreement.
However, MStar said the deal has led the two companies to establish a strategic alliance that will help the local IC designer boost its technology in developing display chips.
Grand Cathay Securities (大華證券) analyst Mars Hsu (徐振家) said MStar is likely to develop portable TV chips based on the latest patent licensing in a bid to diversify its TV chip design business.
“The patent licensing is expected to help MStar maintain its leading position in the global display IC chip market,” Hsu said.
Hsu said monitor and TV chips account for more than 90 percent of MStar’s annual sales and that the company is the largest monitor and TV chip supplier in the world. A recent report released by IC Insights, a global semiconductor market research firm, showed MStar was expected to rank as the 13th-largest fabless IC provider in the world last year, with US$1.06 billion in sales, up 75 percent from a year earlier.
Market observers said investors view the firm as an emerging competitor to MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s largest handset chip designer.
MStar, established in June 2002, moved its headquarters to the Cayman Islands in 2007, registering there with the goal of expanding globally and opening subsidiaries in Singapore and the Netherlands.
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