Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd is planning to make a bid of $23 billion to acquire Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), according to Wall Street Journal. Incase both the companies reached an agreement, this would be the largest Chinese takeover of a US-based company.
State-backed Chinese technology conglomerateis looking forward to make an offer of $21 per share for Micron that represents a premium of 19.3 percent to the closing price of MU yesterday, according to the report. Micron didn’t responded to the reports so far.
A successful offer for Micron would consolidate the place of Unigroup as a leader for technological development in China, after it inked deals and research collaborations with overseas firms in the semiconductor market. Tsinghua University located in Beijing controls the company.
However, any foreign acquisition of Micron, which is the last key manufacturer of DRAM chips based in the US, would possibly have to go through a review by theCFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) that reviews transactions for national security purpose.
Micron is engaged in making DRAM, and NAND memory chips for storing images, music and other stuff on cameras and smartphones. It would be a major advancement for modestly growing chip industry of China if Unigroup acquires Micron.
Unigrouptransformed itself into a major semiconductor player after it acquired Spreadtrum and RDA Microelectronics in deals worth $1.6 billion in 2014. After getting an investment of $1.5 billion from Intel Corp, Unigroupvowed to collaborate with Intel on research and further Chinese technology.
In recent years, the memory business has seen speedy consolidation. A couple of months ago, Hewlett-Packard sold 51 percent stake in its data-networking business based in China to Unigroup for about $2.3 billion. Last year, the chipmaker giant Intel purchased a stake in two mobile chip manufacturers through another agreement with Unigroup.
