Electronic components manufacturer Lite-On Technology Corp (光寶科技) has made a public tender offer to partially or fully acquire U-Media Communications Inc (宇智網通), which provides advanced 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) and connectivity solutions.
Lite-On — whose products cover information technology and consumer electronics, cloud computing and artificial intelligence of things, and optoelectronics — is offering NT$54 in cash per share for U-Media’s outstanding shares, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Lite-On’s tender represents a premium of 19.07 percent to U-Media’s closing price of NT$45.35 on Wednesday. U-Media shares rose 9.92 percent to close at NT$49.85 yesterday.
Photo courtesy of Lite-On Technology Corp
Through the tender offer, which begins today and runs until March 12, Lite-On targets to acquire between 20 percent (7,538,820) and 100 percent (37,694,100) of U-Media’s outstanding shares.
Lite-On projects rapid growth in mobile network traffic, driven by expansion in data centers and rising demand for edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
Against this backdrop, FWA and AI-powered networks are crucial for offering high-speed, high-quality and reliable connections while efficiently managing traffic, it said.
“Through our alliance with U-Media, we can better integrate our resources and product portfolio, and we will be better positioned to capture long-term market opportunities arising from AI-driven network optimization and the accelerating adoption of AI-enabled applications and edge computing,” Lite-On chairman Tom Soong (宋明峰) said in the statement.
Leveraging the companies’ complementary strengths in existing customer bases and product portfolios in the networking communications sector, synergies from the deal are expected to emerge within nine to 12 months, Lite-On president Anson Chiu (邱森彬) told a news conference at the Taiwan Stock Exchange late on Wednesday.
While this collaboration would help enhance real-time responses to industry trends, it is also expected to speed up innovations and advance development of next-generation networking technologies, U-Media chairman Mark Yuan (袁允中) said.
U-Media’s revenue last year slid 0.56 percent year-on-year to NT$1.95 billion (US$61.7 million), representing a tiny 1 percent of Lite-On’s revenue of NT$166.09 billion, which increased 21.12 percent from the previous year.
Lite-On shares closed up 9.94 percent at NT$177 yesterday.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS