BARGAINING CHIP:The Taiwanese company has approached Macronix due to the latter’s patents and its ongoing lawsuit against Toshiba, a local newspaper reported

Taipei Times
Date: Jul 04, 2017
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is reportedly considering forming a strategic alliance with Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), the world’s No. 2 NOR flash memorychip maker, to help Hon Hai’s bid to acquire Toshiba Corp’s memorychip unit.

Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) and General Interface Solution Holding Ltd (GIS, 業成) chairman Chou Hsien-ying (周賢穎) last month met several times with Macronix chairman Miin Wu (吳敏求) to discuss a potential alliance, as Macronix owns a large number of patents for memory products that could be used as a bargaining chip in the Toshiba bid, the Chinese-language newspaper Economic Daily News reported yesterday.

Toshiba on June 21 selected a consortium consisting of Innovation Network Corp of Japan, state-backed Development Bank of Japan, Bain Capital LP and South Korea’s SK Hynix as a “preferred bidder” for Toshiba Memory.

Gou on June 22 told an international news conference that the Japanese government and Toshiba had intentionally pushed Hon Hai out, despite the Hon Hai-led consortium, including Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc, offering a higher price.    [FULL  STORY]