ASML Paying $3.09 Billion to Buy Taiwan Chip-Tech Firm Hermes Microvision
June 16 2016 - 10:40AM
Dow Jones News
ASML Holding NV has agreed to buy Taiwan-based Hermes
Microvision Inc. for about US$3.09 billion, the latest in a string
of deals in the global semiconductor industry.
ASML will pay 1,410 New Taiwan Dollars per share for Hermes
Microvision, representing a 31% premium on the company's average
share price over the past 30 days. The acquisition will be financed
by debt, stock and cash and is expected to close before the end of
the year.
ASML, based in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, is the world's
largest manufacturer by sales of lithography systems, which are
used to print circuit patterns on silicon wafers. Hermes
Microvision specializes in making pattern verification systems for
semiconductor devices.
ASML had sales of €6.3 billion ($7.1 billion) in 2015, while
Hermes Microvision recorded €182 million in revenue.
The semiconductor industry has experienced a wave of
consolidation in the past two years as chip-makers and their
suppliers look to build scale in response to slowing growth and
rising costs. Last year alone, chip companies announced more than
$100 billion in mergers and acquisitions, according to
Dealogic.
ASML said the industry is seeking to develop ever-smaller and
more complex chips and that its acquisition of Hermes Microvision
could make it easier to address these challenges. The tie-up will
enable the companies to accelerate their product integration,
helping the industry to boost production of the most advanced
microchips, it said.
"Our two companies have worked together for almost two years to
see how we could best combine our capabilities, and found that we
could significantly improve this constructive cooperation and
better serve our customer by teaming up as one company," said ASML
Chief Executive Peter Wennink.
ASML plays an important role in the global semiconductor market
as the leading supplier of the equipment needed to produce chips
for everything from smartphones to computers. Its biggest clients
are Intel Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung
Electronics Co., who together invested billions of dollars in the
company in 2012 to speed up development of so-called extreme
ultraviolet lithography machines, or EUV.
The EUV technology, which had a breakthrough last year, can
produce smaller and more powerful chips but its development has
been costly and complex. ASML said the acquisition of Hermes
Microvision could also support its EUV systems, which are scheduled
to begin with volume production in 2018.
Bryan Garnier analysts welcomed the deal but said the
acquisition "doesn't change our view that the timing of adoption of
EUV is under pressure given the current tough environment in the
semiconductor market."
Write to Maarten van Tartwijk at maarten.vantartwijk@wsj.com and
Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2016 10:25 ET (14:25 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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