Workers from Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday rallied on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building, urging government agencies to intervene in a hostile takeover bid by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體).
ASE, the world’s largest integrated-circuit packaging and testing firm, completed a tender offer in September to acquire a 25 percent stake in SPIL, the world’s third-largest silicon technology manufacturer.
However, SPIL has questioned ASE’s intentions, saying that the tender has laid the groundwork for a possible hostile takeover.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Silconware Self-help Association members marched from Ketagalan Boulevard to the Legislative Yuan and Executive Yuan to present petitions calling for government intervention, shouting that they rejected “blackhearted corporations” and telling ASE to “scram.”
Protesters wore company clothes stating: “I [heart] SPIL” and carried handwritten signs attacking ASE’s environmental record and questioning the firm’s motives in making the takeover bid.
“We’re here mainly to oppose the hostile takeover and defend our right to work,” Silconware Self-help Association deputy convener Chen Wan-yi (陳琬宜) said, adding that the law unfairly favors acquiring firms during takeovers, calling for the Legislative Yuan to pass a new intervention law.
SPIL management has been fighting the takeover since ASE announced a bid to acquire 25 percent of the firm’s shares in August. SPIL management responded with a proposal to increase their ownership of company stocks and expanded the firm’s capital through a trade-sharing plan with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
The plan failed to win approval in a shareholders’ meeting last month.
Workers yesterday criticized ASE claims that its acquisition of SPIL shares was purely an investment, saying that the firm had a record of hostile takeovers leading to massive layoffs and called for the Financial Supervisory Commission to investigate whether the firm had made misleading claims.
“We’re extremely worried that this kind of corporation wants to be our boss, because it doesn’t put effort into managing [firms it takes over],” a worker surnamed Wu (吳) said.
ASE released a statement saying that it supported maintaining workers’ existing benefits and working conditions.
The current stake in SPIL was acquired fairly and transparently with the goal of establishing a foundation for cooperation, the firm said.
Meanwhile, FSC Chairman William Tseng (曾銘宗) said that his commission would maintain neutrality toward the bid unless it found that ASE had broken the law.
Additional reporting by CNA
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