Globalfoundries reportedly has agreed to take over financially-troubled ProMOS Technologies for NT$20-30 billion (US$0.7-1 billion), according to industry sources. By adding ProMOS' 12-inch wafer fab in Taichung, central Taiwan to its global manufacturing facilities, Globalfoundries will be striving for orders from IC design houses in China and Taiwan, the sources indicated.
After being acquired, ProMOS will still be able to continue business with its customers over the next 1-2 years, the sources said. Known as a maker of PC DRAM, ProMOS has reiterated plans to turn its business focus to niche-market memory and foundry services for non-memory products such as panel driver ICs.
ProMOS previously sold its 12-inch fab located at the Hsinchu Science Park, northern Taiwan to Macronix International. ProMOS has therefore scaled down its operations and concentrated resources on one fab with an aim to return to profitability. The Taichung plant is capable of producing 60,000 12-inch wafers a month.
However, ProMOS remained in the red in fourth-quarter 2011. The firm is also facing delisting from the Taiwan stock market as trading of its shares has been suspended since September 2011 due to its failure to release required financial statements on time.
Globalfoundries currently runs two 12-inch fabs – one in Dresden, Germany and the other in Singapore – with monthly capacity reaching a combined 130,000 wafers. The firm is also equipping a new 12-inch fab in New York, with pilot runs slated for the end of 2012.
The addition of ProMOS is expected to help Globalfoundries develop relationships with Taiwan-based IC design houses, which contract mainly Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) to manufacture their 65nm and below solutions, the sources pointed out. Seeking partnerships with China-based IC designers will be the US firm's next move, the sources said.
Globalfoundries' previous-acquisition of Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing enabled it to strengthen its customer base to include fabless IC vendors such as Qualcomm and Broadcom. It was formerly AMD's manufacturing arm.
According to Digitimes Research, industry leader TSMC expanded its market share to 55% in the fourth quarter of 2011, followed by UMC with 13%. Globalfoundries trailed close behind UMC with 12% during the period.