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.
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