Semiconductor inspection tool and equipment maker Hermes Microvision Inc (HMI, 漢微科) yesterday said it has accepted a NT$100 billion (US$3.09 billion) buyout offer from ASML Holding NV, as the two companies aim to jointly develop advanced inspection technologies for smaller chips.
“The combination of the two companies will better help customers overcome difficulties in chip-shrinking process technologies and help them improve their yields,” Hermes Microvision chairman Shu Chin-yung (許金榮) told a media briefing before the stock market opened yesterday.
Shares of Hermes Microvision surged 9.92 percent to close at NT$1,330 yesterday on the over-the-counter Taipei Exchange.
Photo: Hung Yu-fang, Taipei Times
According to the agreement, Netherlands-based ASML is to pay NT$1,410 for each Hermes Microvision share. That represents a 16.63 percent premium to Wednesday’s closing price of NT$1,210, or 31 percent to the company’s average share price over the past 30 days.
The transaction marks the second-largest acquisition in the nation this year, following US memorychip maker Micron Technology Inc’s NT$130 billion buyout offer for the remaining 67 percent stake in Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技).
Hermes Microvision, which has an 85 percent share of the global e-beam inspection market, counts the world’s two biggest semiconductor equipment spenders — Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) — as its clients.
“The acquisition is intended to make a strong product offering even stronger. Our metrology technologies are complementary and, when combined, they would offer the chance to significantly improve process control and enhance yields for our customers,” ASML president and chief executive officer Peter Wennink said in a joint statement.
The integrated offerings are to address the challenges chipmakers are facing as they enter sub-10 nanometer dimensions and 3D integration, requiring chip manufacturers to apply advanced process control, the statement said.
As the e-beam inspection systems are specially designed for mask manufacturers to identify defects in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) masks, the acquisition of Hermes Microvision would support ASML’s EUV platform, which is to be used for volume production of semiconductors starting in 2018, the statement said.
As part of the deal, Hermes-Epitek Corp (漢民科技), the parent of Hermes Microvision, and certain ranking executives agreed to subscribe to a total of 5.9 million ASML shares at NT$3,106 per share.
HMI founder and CEO Jack Jau (招允佳) said the company intends to continue to invest in and grow its business at its two operation sites in Taiwan, where it employs about 350 people.
After the transaction is finalized in the fourth quarter, Hermes Microvision is to become a fully owned subsidiary of ASML and is to delist its shares from the over-the-counter market.
Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) analyst Steve Huang (黃柏璁) said the deal would help Hermes Microvision accelerate its upgrading process and boost the company’s slow e-beam business.
The company would also obtain research and development resources from ASML to expand its e-beam business, while fending off growing competition from bigger rivals, such as Applied Materials Inc and Lam Research Corp, Huang said in a note yesterday.
As HMI and ASML only have a combined market share of about 15 percent, there should be no anti-trust concern, Huang said.
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