1. Qualcomm is hard to win shareholders' support for NXP to extend the offer period again;
Micronet Report May 12 (Reporter Zhang Yiqun) Recently, Qualcomm announced that it has extended the deadline for the purchase of cash shares of NXP’s outstanding common shares. This deadline was extended to May 25.
Qualcomm announced in October 2016 that it will acquire NXP for $110 per share in cash, for a total transaction price of approximately $38 billion. If successful, it will be the largest transaction in the semiconductor industry. Acquisition for NXP Qualcomm can expand its business scope and reduce its dependence on smart phone business, and NXP as a quality resource will also boost Qualcomm’s expectations and performance in the capital market.
In order to resist Broadcom’s hostile takeover of Qualcomm at the end of last year, Qualcomm announced in February this year that it had reached a new agreement with NXP to increase the bid price from US$110 per share to US$127.50 per share. After adjustment, the acquisition’s The total amount has increased from about 38 billion U.S. dollars to about 44 billion U.S. dollars.
At present, Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP still depends on two factors. First, globally, only the regulatory approval of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China is adopted. Qualcomm issued a statement on April 19 stating that it has withdrawn its original application and resubmitted to seek business. The Ministry approved that this was the first time in two years that the Ministry of Commerce had used two 180-day approval deadlines for review in recent years. Second, according to the new agreement, Qualcomm needs to persuade 70% of NXP shareholders to agree to its acquisition in order to achieve the transaction.
On the last trading day prior to the announcement of the delay, 45,135,726 NXP’s outstanding shares (about 13.1%) completed the offer. This figure has risen and waned in the past one or two months. The figure for March is At the end of the month, 19% fell back to 15.1%, compared with 16.2% in mid-April.
Earlier, Qualcomm has extended the deadline for the cash offer several times. At the same time, Qualcomm and NXP completed the date of the transaction has also been postponed. In mid-April, Qualcomm released the news that after consultation with NXP, the deadline will be finalized. On July 25th, Qualcomm’s acquisition of NXP’s transaction will fail and Qualcomm will pay NXP 20 if the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has not stated yet or Qualcomm has not reached 70% of the NXP’s equity required for the offer. Billion Dollar 'break up fee'.
The increasingly complex trade situation between China and the United States makes the Chinese Ministry of Commerce more cautious about the approval of the acquisition, and the goal of completing the acquisition offer by 70% seems to be far apart. There are still two months or so before the final deadline. Qualcomm NXP’s successful acquisition prospects are currently not optimistic.
2. China and the United States dig up Japanese semiconductor talents;
At present, the global new technology industry is booming, and many key projects such as artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of things, and electric vehicles need to use semiconductors, so that the demand for semiconductors is increasing day by day, and semiconductor technicians are all turned into high-tech companies. Compete for the object.
Japanese media reported that the Yangtze River Storage Technology (YMTC), a semiconductor memory development company owned by Chinese state-owned company Ziguang Group, has entered Kawasaki, Japan. It is said that the national fund has invested 300 million yen in funds and commissioned Changjiang Storage Technology to build a memory factory; according to related parties Revealed that the company has started recruitment in Japan.
In fact, many large electronics companies in Japan are clustered along the JR Nanbu Line, where Kawasaki Station is the starting point. Therefore, the analysis points out that Changjiang Storage Technology chose Kawasaki as its choice for the purpose of facilitating the recruitment of companies such as Toshiba, Fujitsu and NEC in the future. Technical staff.
In addition to Chinese companies going to Japan to 'get people', the American company Micron Technology has also started to steal technicians from Toshiba to develop its own memory cards. In the face of pressure from foreign companies, Japanese companies are also very distressed. It means that Toshiba plans to use them. New manufacturing facilities to cope with the increasing memory demand, but failed to recruit enough semiconductor technicians.
In fact, Japan’s semiconductor technicians have already faced a tight supply situation. There are also serious shortages of related graduates. The head of the Employment Group of the Tokyo Institute of Technology also stated that students studying semiconductor related courses have been decreasing.
3. The rise of the mainland AI chip
The research report pointed out that the global AI chip industry is still dominated by European and American companies, and China’s top Huawei failed to squeeze into the top 10. In the AI chip field, China still has a long way to go.
The trend of artificial intelligence (AI) and chip development is considered as one of the key reasons for Sino-US trade friction, but according to the latest global AI chip company rankings, US companies still have the list of top 24 AI chip companies in the world. Dominate the industry. Although China’s company has 6 seats, Huawei’s best-performing Huawei ranks only 12th, once again alerting the Chinese industry.
According to comprehensive media reports, Compass Intelligence, a market research company, recently scored the world’s top 24 AI chip companies in terms of company performance, product performance, market performance, and unique market. US companies included 14 companies, including Nvidia. , Intel (Intel) and IBM rank among the top three. Chinese companies, Huawei Hass (12), Imagination (15), Rockchip (20), Keihara (21), Cambrian (23rd) and Horizon (24th) etc.
Chip imports exceed oil
Although the number of Chinese companies listed in the list is the second largest in the world, none of them has entered the world's top 10. Prior to this, the U.S. government announced last month that it would prohibit its companies from selling chips and other products to Chinese communications equipment maker ZTE within seven years. The list has once again triggered many discussions and worries. The review article can not help but say: How far is the Chinese chip to rise?
In order to transform itself from a manufacturing country to a manufacturing power, the Chinese government announced the “Made in China 2025” plan in 2015. The most important thing is to promote the development of semiconductors. The U.S. government has repeatedly criticized this plan as China’s support for its company’s acquisition of U.S. semiconductor companies. Get tools for cutting-edge technology in the United States.
The data show that since 2013, China needs to import more than 200 billion U.S. dollars worth of chips each year. It has surpassed oil for several years in a row to become a leader in imported goods. In 2017, it reached a record high of US$260.1 billion. This shows that China’s chips Highly dependent on the import crisis.
The analysis pointed out that currently China's chip products mainly focus on low-end products such as power supplies, logic, storage, MCUs, and semiconductor discrete devices. In highly demanding stability and reliability of communications, industrial, medical and defense military and aerospace In terms of applications, China-made chips lag far behind international standards. Especially in high-speed optical communication interfaces, large-scale FPGAs, high-speed and high-precision ADCs, and DACs, key high-tech devices such as DACs still rely entirely on US suppliers.
The government’s billions of dollars of funds has helped the industry
So earlier, the United States offered a 7-year ban on ZTE, which was worthy of a serious warning, and it also stimulated an upsurge of investment in the semiconductor industry by Chinese officials and companies.
On the 26th of last month, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Wuhan, he said that it is necessary to accelerate major breakthroughs in chip technology. Then there was news that the national integrated circuit industry investment fund (commonly known as the big fund ) It is nearing completion of the second-stage fundraising of RMB 120 billion. It is expected that a larger proportion of this fund will be spent on chip design. At the beginning of this month, it was also reported that the Chinese government has allocated nearly 10 billion yuan in funds this year. Major investment in semiconductors, new materials, industrial Internet and other fields.
In addition, in late April, Chinese Internet giant Alibaba first announced that it is developing a super AI chip, and subsequently announced a wholly-owned acquisition of a large-scale production technology company. In addition, the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced the first in China earlier this month. Cloud AI Chips: Cambrian MLU100 Cloud Smart Chips. To avoid repeating ZTE's flaws and reduce dependence on foreign chip products, China is accelerating its semiconductor layout.
Business Times