The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) yesterday said it was suspending its review of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s (ASE, 日月光半導體) bid to take over rival Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) because the deal has fallen through.
The commission’s decision meant a victory for SPIL in the high-profile ownership battle, as ASE is now barred from launching a new round of tender offers to fully acquire SPIL within a year as the Company Act (公司法) stipulates.
However, ASE, the world’s largest chip packaging and testing services provider, is not likely to give up so soon.
ASE released a statement saying it will continue with our plan to acquire 100 percent equity interest in SPIL through all legally permissible means and avenues.”
The industrial consolidation will help the company cope with “intense and constant changes in the global semiconductor industry, as well as to ensure the sustained development of the Taiwanese semiconductor packaging and testing supply chain,” it said.
The FTC said in a statement that as “ASE’s tender offer has expired on March 17, there is no chance that the merger will happen. As a result, the commission will stop reviewing the case.”
ASE’s acquisition of a major stake in SPIL has raised anti-trust concerns and fears that the merger would undermine competition in the market.
The FTC on March 16, one day before the March 17 expiry date, said that the deal was complicated, and that before clarifying certain issues related to the potential merger, it could not decide whether it would approve the deal.
The FTC’s announcement essentially meant that the deal could not be completed.
On March 17, ASE said formally that the tender offer could not go through.
The commission’s approval is one of the deciding factors for ASE to clinch the NT$42.35 billion (US$1.3 billion) deal, along with a minimal purchase threshold of 5 percent of 770 million proposed SPIL shares.
The transaction, if approved, would help ASE expand its holding to 49 percent from the current 25 percent and pave the way for a full acquisition.
“We deeply regret and are extremely baffled by the FTC’s decision, which is completely without legal basis and violates the FTC’s own administrative precedents,” ASE said in the statement.
SPIL, which has repeatedly urged the commission to terminate the review of the acquisition deal since March 16, welcomed the FTC’s decision.
US PROBE: The Information reported that the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether the firm made advanced chips for China’s Huawei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls. The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為). “We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said. “If we
DEMAND FOR AI CHIPS: Net income in the third quarter surged 31.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$325.26 billion, the strongest quarterly return in the company’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its revenue forecast to annual growth of 30 percent this year, thanks to strong and sustainable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors for servers. It was the second upward adjustment from 25 percent year-on-year growth estimated three months ago, despite recent concerns about whether the AI boom could be another technology bubble. “The demand is real. It’s real. And I believe it is just the beginning of this demand. Alright, so one of my key customers said the demand right now is ‘insane,’” TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C.
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98
COUNTRY-BASED: Setting ceilings on sales of the technology would tighten limits that originally targeted China’s ambitions in artificial intelligence amid security risks US officials have discussed capping sales of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Nvidia Corp and other American companies on a country-specific basis, people familiar with the matter said, a move that would limit some nations’ AI capabilities. The new approach would set a ceiling on export licenses for some countries in the interest of national security, according to the people, who described the private discussions on condition of anonymity. Officials in the administration of US President Joe Biden focused on Persian Gulf countries that have a growing appetite for AI data centers and the deep pockets to fund them, the people