MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s No. 2 handset chipmaker, yesterday said it would adopt an “open attitude” toward collaborating with Chinese chipmakers to seek more growth opportunities amid escalating competition.
The Hsinchu-based company said in a statement that such collaborations would only happen if they “abide by government policies and would benefit the company’s shareholders, management team and the semiconductor industries across the [Taiwan] Strait.”
MediaTek’s comments came after China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd (清華紫光) chairman Zhao Weiguo (趙偉國) expressed a strong interest in acquiring MediaTek and in developing a comprehensive chip supply chain in China.
The proposal is the latest in a slew of mergers and acquisitions launched by the Beijing-based company in the past two years.
On Friday last week, it announced it is to buy a 25 percent stake in Taiwanese memorychip packager and tester Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) for NT$19.4 billion (US$592.9 million).
If the government agreed to loosen investment regulations, Tsinghua Unigroup “would soon arrange a meeting with MediaTek chairman Tsai Ming-kai (蔡明介) to discuss the mergers of MediaTek with Tsinghua Unigroup’s Spreadtrum Communications Co (展訊通信) and RDA Microelectronics Inc (銳迪科技),” Zhao said during an interview with the Chinese-language Commercial Times.
The three-way merger would create a company big enough to overtake Qualcomm Inc as the world’s largest mobile-phone chipmaker, Zhao told the newspaper.
Currently, Chinese investors are banned from investing in IC chip designers.
MediaTek yesterday again urged the government to relax the restrictions, saying that Chinese companies are allowed to invest in local chipmakers conditionally.
The report gave a boost to MediaTek’s stock price, which rallied 6.09 percent to NT$270 yesterday, outperforming the TAIEX, which inched up 0.71 percent.
Zhao yesterday also confirmed that Charles Kau (高啟全), former president of local DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), would start work for Tsinghua Unigroup.
Kau is to be in charge of the company’s chip business unit along with Spreadtrum chairman Leo Li (李力游), according to the report.
Tsinghua Unigroup is interested in developing its NAND flash chip business, not DRAM, Zhao said in the report.
Kau yesterday left his chairmanship at Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a DRAM manufacturing joint venture between Nanya Technology and the US memorychip maker Micron Technology Inc, according to a statement Inotera filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
The board is to elect a new chairman at its upcoming board meeting, it said.
Kau originally represented Nanya Technology on Inotera’s board.
Inotera said its shareholders Nanya Technology and Nan Ya Plastics Corp (南亞塑膠) yesterday appointed Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) and Nan Ya Plastics president Tzou Ming-jen (鄒明仁) to replace Kau and Hu Yaw-wen (胡耀文) as new representatives to the board.
The Chinese company’s acquisition of the US NAND flash maker SanDisk Corp for US$18 billion via Western Digital and its latest investment in Powertech are aspects of Tsinghua Unigroup’s broader plan to develop its NAND flash business, he said.
In response to the call for the rules to be relaxed, Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) yesterday said the government would conduct a comprehensive evaluation, including the possible impact on the nation’s job market and technological competitiveness from loosening the regulations.
Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said that the commission would reassess laws on hostile takeovers and devise appropriate amendments.
However, it is up to the Ministry of Economic Affairs to decide whether Chinese financial backers would be allowed to influence the management team of the Taiwanese companies they are acquiring, Tseng said.
Additional reporting by Ted Chen
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