MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it had reached its goal of buying a 48 percent stake in rival MStar Semiconductor Inc (晨星半導體), the first stage in its plan to fully acquire the TV chip supplier by Jan. 1.
MediaTek chief financial executive David Ku (顧大為) said that Mstar shareholders had agreed to sell 79.69 percent of their shareholdings in MStar — far exceeding MediaTek’s aim to buy a 48 percent stake by Monday’s deadline.
“That means most shareholders accept the merger,” Ku said, adding that MediaTek would start to book MStar’s revenue and net profit next month.
MediaTek’s board yesterday also approved its plan to acquire 100 percent of MStar. The merger proposal will be voted on at an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Oct. 12. In total, MediaTek will pay about NT$115 billion in cash and stock for the acquisition.
On July 31, MediaTek said it expected revenue in the current quarter to grow by 13 percent to 18 percent sequentially to between NT$26.5 billion and NT$27.7 billion, boosted by strong demand for its smartphone chips.
The company also raised its full-year forecast for smartphone chips to 95 million units, from 75 million units, as smartphone chip shipments are expected to rise to 30 million units this quarter, from 21 million units last quarter, president Hsieh Ching-jiang (謝清江) said on July 31.
At that time, MediaTek did not factor in MStar’s contribution in the third-quarter guidance.
“We will stick to this forecast. The third quarter is a seasonally high period,” Ku said yesterday.
Eric Chen (陳慧明), a semiconductor industry analyst with Daiwa Capital, said MediaTek would be one of the biggest beneficiaries from the fast-growing smartphone market in China, which is expected to rise to 200 million units this year.
MediaTek expects to seize 40 percent to 45 percent of China’s smartphone and 3G handset chip market this year, a spike from last year’s 20 percent, Chen said.
MStar, the world’s biggest supplier of chips for LCD TVs, also stood by its outlook for the third quarter.
“The company’s operations will improve gradually in the third quarter. We hold a cautiously optimistic view,” chief executive official Lin Han-fei (林瀚飛) said yesterday. “The business will be in line with the seasonal pattern.”
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
LIMITED MEASURES: The proposed restrictions on Chinese chip exports are weaker than previously considered, following lobbying by major US firms, sources said US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions, but stop short of some stricter measures previously considered, said sources familiar with the matter. The restrictions could be unveiled as soon as next week, said the sources, who emphasized that the timing and contours of the rules have changed several times, and that nothing is final until they are published. The measures follow months of deliberations by US officials, negotiations with allies in Japan and the Netherlands, and
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has retired from the company and stepped down from its board of directors just as the company is in the middle of trying to execute a turnaround plan. Intel chief financial officer David Zinsner and Intel Products CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus are serving as interim co-CEOs while the board searches for Gelsinger’s replacement, the company said in a statement. Frank Yeary, independent chair of the board of Intel, is to serve as interim executive chair, the company said. Gelsinger’s departure is hitting at a tumultuous time for the US chipmaker. Once the industry leader in
RSS