Polytronics Technology Corp (聚鼎科技) yesterday announced that it is buying Henkel AG’s thermal clad dielectric material (TCLAD) business division for US$26 million as the Taiwanese firm aims to improve its technology, product portfolio and revenue performance.
Polytronics, headquartered in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區), is a supplier of protection components and heat dissipation materials. The firm entered the metallic heat-dissipation substrate market in 2007 and developed a unique solventless production process.
Its board of directors approved signing an agreement with Henkel to acquire the German chemical firm’s TCLAD division in the US.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp
The purchase includes all assets and business interests, including equipment, know-how, patents, trademarks, materials, merchandise and factories in Prescott, Wisconsin, Polytronics said.
The deal would include continuing the contracts of 273 existing employees and ongoing client relationships, but not debts, it said.
Through the deal, Polytronics expects to form a joint research and development platform, secure customers and sales channels, and explore new markets, such as aerospace and defense, to elevate its competitiveness and efficiency, it said in a regulatory filing.
“If synergy is achieved after post-close integration, there would be positive impacts on [Polytronics’] net value per share and net profit per share,” the company said in the filing. “If this deal is approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, the closing of the transaction will occur in the fourth quarter of 2020 or the first quarter of 2021.”
Calling the deal a marriage of two strong partners, Polytronics chairman Edward Chu (朱復華) said that he anticipates a 50 percent increase in revenue and a 15 percent increase in profit for Polytronics next year.
The company’s main products include polymeric positive temperature coefficient thermistors, transient voltage suppressors, thyristor surge suppressors, thermal panels for LED lighting and backlighting, as well as LED lamps, according to its Web site.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day