Shareholders of Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) and Siliconware Precision Industries Co Ltd (SPIL, 矽品精密), the nation’s two biggest integrated circuit packaging and testing services providers, have approved a merger deal between the two companies.
The companies yesterday held extraordinary meetings for shareholders to vote on the merger proposal, according to which the two firms would establish a holding company and join under a corporate umbrella.
The two firms in May 2016 announced that the holding company would fully own ASE and SPIL, and that the two would remain independent from each other.
Under the deal, ASE is to trade one common share in exchange for half a share in the new company, while SPIL shareholders are to receive NT$51.2 per ASE share.
The new holding company is to be called ASE Industrial Holding Co (日月光投資控股).
Speaking to the press after his company’s shareholders’ meeting, SPIL chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) said that the decision by ASE to buy into SPIL’s share price shows that the suitor is impressed by SPIL’s growth into the nation’s second-largest IC packaging and testing firm over the past three decades.
ASE chairman Jason Chang (張虔生) has lofty ambitions and would allow SPIL employees more opportunity to develop, Lin said.
After the merger, ASE and SPIL are to retain their management teams and employees, but would grow together.
The shareholders’ meetings were scheduled after the deal in November last year secured regulatory approval from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, clearing the way for the merger.
The deal was greenlit by the Fair Trade Commission in November 2016 and in May last year by the US Federal Trade Commission.
Meanwhile, the SPIL board has tentatively agreed to delist the company’s shares from the Taiwan Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Composite on April 17.
The new holding company is expected to list its shares on April 30.
ASE shares yesterday rose 1.58 percent to NT$38.50 and SPIL shares gained 0.20 percent to NT$50.30 on the local main board.
ASML Holding NV’s new advanced chip machines have a daunting price tag, said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), one of the Dutch company’s biggest clients. “The cost is very high,” TSMC senior vice president Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, referring to ASML’s latest system known as high-NA extreme ultraviolet (EUV). “I like the high-NA EUV’s capability, but I don’t like the sticker price,” Zhang said. ASML’s new chip machine can imprint semiconductors with lines that are just 8 nanometers thick — 1.7 times smaller than the previous generation. The machines cost 350 million euros (US$378 million)
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
EXPLOSION: A driver who was transporting waste material from the site was hit by a blunt object after an uncontrolled pressure release and thrown 6m from the truck Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) said yesterday there was no damage to its facilities after an incident at its Arizona factory construction site where a waste disposal truck driver was transported to hospital. Firefighters responded to an explosion on Wednesday afternoon at the TSMC plant in Phoenix, the Arizona Republic reported, citing the local fire department. Cesar Anguiano-Guitron, 41, was transporting waste material from the project site and stopped to inspect the tank when he was made aware of a potential problem, a police report seen by Bloomberg News showed. Following an “uncontrolled pressure release,” he was hit by a blunt
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are