MediaTek announced the acquisition of Morningstar in 2012, due to the two sides in the mainland TV chip market share of more than Qi Cheng, in the face of the Ministry of Commerce review, has been approved by the restriction.According to the requirements of the Ministry of Commerce, MediaTek and Morningstar, although the two companies can be one hundred percent In the merger, Morningstar's mobile chip division can also be transferred to MediaTek. However, the TV chip divisions of both companies must maintain their independent operations within three years, giving television customers another look forward to the buffer period of chip suppliers.
Since then, the original Morningstar mobile phone department more than 800 employees merged MediaTek, the original morning Star TV chips and set-top box about more than 2,000 employees remain in Taiwan Morningstar.
Under the three-year ban imposed by the Ministry of Commerce, MediaTek has chosen Morningstar to operate as a subsidiary and its own TV chip team has also been operating to develop its own product planning, customers and markets, and the two sides have maintained a competitive relationship so far.
The Ministry of Commerce's three-year ban on the merger of both parties expired in August last year. It is understood that MediaTek submitted an application for formal merger in the next month. However, the merger application has not yet been approved by the Ministry of Commerce.
Insiders pointed out that for the "size M", can not enter the second stage of the merger, the main difference is that both sides of the TV chip team and the integration of resources efficiency; if the merger will reduce duplication of investment on both sides and reduce operating costs , And then pull up the benefits.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Taiwan's Hsinchu Science Park, MStar (Morningstar) has challenged Genesis Microchip, which has more than 60% market share in display chips, to tap the current capital It's nearly 20 times bigger than its predecessor, Realtek; then, it won the MediaTek TV chip; now it has become a well-deserved first place in these areas.
At that time MStar killer of MTK is the price, dragged down the price brought Crane.In 2012, when Morningstar threatened MediaTek phone chips, MediaTek shot its acquisition.
MSStar's smartphone chips and other wireless communications related businesses are merged into MediaTek which is focused on handset chips by MediaTek. MStar's focus is on the back of the TV chip, and Morningstar's subsidiary, which operates the LCD TV chip business, remains a separate entity and continues In the smart TV market siege slightly.
The move at the time of the impact on TV manufacturers is very large, MediaTek and Morningstar is the major supplier of the majority of television plants in mainland China, the merger means that the mainland manufacturers lower bargaining power in the television and set-top boxes, the two market share Will be more than 75% .Today's Morning Star is still the dominant smart TV chip.
Market research firm IC Insights data show that the global semiconductor industry each year the total amount of acquisitions record a record high of 107.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 began to decline in 2016 global semiconductor M & A transactions total amount of 99.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 fell sharply to 27.7 billion Dollars.
In recent years, the semiconductor industry reshuffle the integration slowed down, the subject of mature transactions to reduce the regulatory review has become increasingly stringent.From MediaTek mergers and acquisitions in Taiwan Morningstar, the Purple Light on the western data, Taiwan's three IC packaging and testing companies to start the acquisition, and the acquisition of ASE Silicon products, including the United States, China, and Taiwan, China, take a cautious approach in the face of major industry mergers and acquisitions.
At present, including ASE silicon products in Taiwan, as well as the two mergers and acquisitions, including MediaTek Morningstar, are still under review, the acquisition of ASE and silicon products MOFCOM also reference MediaTek Morningstar acquisition mode, conditional release.
Cai Li Xing last July, became the official CEO of MediaTek.Watch sources pointed out that Tsai Bank for the pan-Pacific Development Group subsidiary strategy more easily, the subsidiary will be more flexible operation, first of all will be to assess the profitability of subsidiaries .Such as Mao Interest rates lower than the average group, does not rule out the cut out of independent operation, so that other companies to invest, take risks together, and MediaTek still have absolute dominance.
Earlier this month, MediaTek CFO and spokesman Gu Dawei said that if there is a major personnel case or subsidiary changes, MediaTek will be announced according to law. At present, there is no change in charge of each business unit, its subsidiary Morningstar is also subject to antitrust-related limit.