According to Bough Lin, the chairman of Siliconware Precision Industries, the organization will be in a stronger position to deliver better outcomes with its vertical alliance with Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) when compared to a potential horizontal alliance with Advanced Semiconductor Engineering.
Siliconware Precision Industries’ is a packaging turnkey solutions provider focusing on semiconductor packaging and testing services for PC, communications and consumer integrated circuits markets, with its primary activity in the field of backend IC.
Foxconn is the largest electronics contractor manufacturer in the world and has been actively developing its upstream chip business. Lin cited ShunSin Technology as an existing example of this development, ShunSin Technology being the Foxconn subsidiary that specializes in system-in-package (SiP) solutions for RF devices, power amplifiers, and other chips.
Lin expects Foxconn and Siliconware Precision Industries customers to complement each other and said that in combination they would create a powerful growth engine that will benefit both companies. He commented that Siliconware Precision Industries’ alliance with Foxconn is expected to begin witnessing positive contributions in 2017 and that this will be buoyed primarily by their growing SiP (system-in-package) business.
Previously, the two companies have shared their plan to jointly develop other advanced packaging technologies in addition to SiP, as well as materials such as embedded substrates. In order to meet the robust demand for IoT devices, wearables and smartphones, the vertical partnership is expected to seek to integrate wire-bounding and wafer-level packaging processes from SMT and Siliconware Precision Industries, module assembly technologies and flexible PCBs from Foxconn.
At a press event held on September 16, Lin reiterated his urge for shareholders of Siliconware Precision Industries to resist selling their holdings to Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, which has made an unsolicited tender offer to purchase as much as a 25% stake in the company.
At the same event, Foxconn chairman Terry Guo declared that the alliance between Siliconware Precision Industries and Foxconn would have a positive effect on the evolution of the semiconductor engineering industry as a whole. Additionally, following the vertical combination of Foxconn’s EMS expertise with Siliconware Precision Industries’ leading technologies in the field of IC backend, Guo said that it is expected that both organizations will grow further their individual business as well as developing their global presence.