Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s No. 3 chip tester and packager, yesterday said its board has agreed to commence a preliminary evaluation of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s (ASE, 日月光半導體) proposed 100 percent acquisition.
However, any hope of a friendly deal going through is diminishing.
ASE yesterday refused to accept the imposition of any conditions and maintained all its terms unchanged.
ASE proposed a second tender offer to buy 24.7 percent of SPIL for NT$42.35 billion (US$1.28 billion) on Wednesday last week, as the first part of its bid to fully acquire the company by next year at the earliest. ASE now owns a 25 percent stake in SPIL as a result of its first tender offer launched in August.
The latest public tender offer is to run from today through Feb. 16 as scheduled, ASE said.
All SPIL’s directors and management would be retained and their current compensation and benefits maintained after the acquisition completes, ASE said in a statement yesterday.
Following a board meeting yesterday, SPIL said it would proceed with the evaluation and negotiation with ASE about its proposal to acquire a 100 percent stake in SPIL, only if “ASE immediately ceases its second hostile tender offer to demonstrate goodwill.”
ASE’s offer of NT$55 per share is unreasonably low and it should reassess its calculations before the deal can go through, SPIL said in a statement.
In addition, ASE has yet to receive the approval of global watchdogs about the combination of the two firms, so antitrust concerns still remain, SPIL said.
The merger of the companies would also seriously impact the industry’s supply chain, SPIL said.
ASE must come up with a substantial plan to safeguard the rights of SPIL employees after the transaction completes, the statement said.
Only if these conditions are met would SPIL start assessing and discussing the acquisition proposal with ASE.
The board also gave the go-ahead to suspend an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting on Jan. 28 to vote for China’s Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd’s (清華紫光) share acquisition proposal.
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