German semiconductor company Infineon Technologies AG signed an agreement yesterday to acquire the local integrated circuit design firm ADMtek Inc (上元科技) for 80 million euros in cash (US$100 million).
Munich-based Infineon noted that it is the company's first acquisition of a controlling stake in a semiconductor company in Asia.
It said that a new company, Infineon-ADMtek Co Ltd, will be set up in Hsinchu to focus on developing broadband customer premise equipment (CPE) integrated circuits and will enable Infineon to enter the rapidly-growing home gateway market in the Asian region.
"ADMtek's complementary competencies and technologies will enable us to successfully compete in the broadband CPE market with a complete system solution," said Thomas Seifert, head of Infineon's Wireline Communications business group.
Infineon said the deal also calls for it to supply products to Accton Technology Corp (
"With Infineon's technology support, I believe ADMtek will be able to expand its product lines," said ADMtek chairman Ken Lu (盧崑瑞).
The 80-million euro deal means that every ADMtek share was priced at about NT$62 to NT$65, Lu said.
ADMtek is expected to report US$43.2 billion in revenues for last year, but that will only allow the company to break even, he said.
Accton shares rose by 5.82 percent to end at NT$30.9 each on the TAIEX yesterday.
Infineon said the venture will strengthen its leading position in the fast-growing, broadband access market segment and also provides Infineon with a strong research and development base, favorable costs, and proximity to the leading original design manufacturing companies of Taiwan.
The broadband access market has topped 100 million users, according to recent studies. These users want advanced broadband services and delivering these services requires a single, easy-to-use and inexpensive home gateway, said Seifert.
The acquisition is expected to be completed in April, subject to ADMtek shareholders approval and various government approvals, including the competent anti-trust authorities.
China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) plans to start mass-producing its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip in the first quarter of next year, even as it struggles to make enough chips due to US restrictions, two people familiar with the matter said. The telecoms conglomerate has sent samples of the Ascend 910C — its newest chip, meant to rival those made by US chipmaker Nvidia Corp — to some technology firms and started taking orders, the sources told Reuters. The 910C is being made by top Chinese contract chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) on its N+2 process, but a lack
NVIDIA PLATFORM: Hon Hai’s Mexican facility is to begin production early next year and a Taiwan site is to enter production next month, Nvidia wrote on its blog Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the world’s biggest electronics manufacturer, yesterday said it is expanding production capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) servers based on Nvidia Corp’s Blackwell chips in Taiwan, the US and Mexico to cope with rising demand. Hon Hai’s new AI-enabled factories are to use Nvidia’s Omnivores platform to create 3D digital twins to plan and simulate automated production lines at a factory in Hsinchu, the company said in a statement. Nvidia’s Omnivores platform is for developing industrial AI simulation applications and helps bring facilities online faster. Hon Hai’s Mexican facility is to begin production early next year and the
AVIATION BOOM: CAL is to renew its passenger and cargo fleets starting next year on record profits as aviation continues to return to pre-pandemic levels China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday said it is optimistic about next year’s business outlook, as the airline continues to renew its fleet on expectations that global passenger traffic would maintain steady growth and air cargo demand would remain strong. From next year to 2028, the airline is to welcome a new Boeing Co 787 fleet — 18 787-9 and six 787-10 passenger aircraft — to cover regional and medium to long-haul destinations, CAL chairman Hsieh Shih-chien (謝世謙) said at an investors’ conference in Taipei. The airline would also continue to introduce Airbus SE 321neo passenger planes and Boeing 777F cargo jets,
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
RSS