中国手机芯片产业将大一统，对手只剩MTK和高通

中国无晶圆厂芯片设计产业向来呈现小厂各立山头、在本土智能手机芯片市场低毛利的激烈竞争下，这种情势正开始出现转变。 拥有中国官方背景的投资机构紫光集团(Tsinghua Unigroup)在7月份时宣布收购中国本土 TD-SCDMA 基频芯片供应商展讯(Spreadtrum Communications)，而最近中国RF芯片设计大厂锐迪科(RDA Microelectronics)也被收归该集团旗下。

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而这波中国本土手机芯片业者的合并热潮，有可能最后结合成一股足以与台湾联发科(MediaTek)匹敌的势力；不过与美国大厂高通(Qualcomm)仍有一段差距。 EETimes美国版编辑近期联系的数个中国电子产业界消息来源认为，对展讯来说，被紫光集团收购是最合乎逻辑、可能也是最好的选择；目前展讯除了要在高阶智能手机市场挑战联发科，同时还要在低阶手机市场与锐迪科一较高下。 此外，如一位中国产业界高层所言，展讯与锐迪科：“在利润超薄的低阶手机市场相互竞争，而且该市场正在衰退；因此这两家公司的合并对于中国电子产业来说是件好事。”他预期在未来会有更多的这类合并案发生；他也认为，中国半导体市场目前是有许多聪明人争抢越来越低的毛利，这是产业界不能承受的。 虽然众多中国产业界消息来源对以上的近期发展抱持正面看法，但对于接下来的变化则意见分歧；有部分产业高层认为，紫光集团的举动是一项“纯粹的金融活动”， 但更多人认为此举的幕后推手是为了强盛本土电子产业的中国政府。还有人看得更远，认为其它中国无晶圆厂芯片设计业者如全志(Allwinner)、瑞芯微 (Rockchip)将因此面临灭亡。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：紫光集团到底是一个什么样的组织？

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• 锐迪科不愿委身展讯，皆因价格没谈到位HjAesmc

{pagination} 紫光集团到底是一个什么样的组织，外界知之甚少──特别是对西方世界来说；而该集团的业务范围以及内部营运成员细节，甚至是中国当地业者也不清楚。 根据一些基本讯息，紫光集团有51%股份为清华控股(Tsinghua Holdings)所有，后者是由北京清华大学注资、百分之百的中国国营企业。紫光集团的其余49%股份是由一家私营机构健坤投资集团(Jiankun Investment Group)持有，负责人为赵伟国，他也是紫光集团总裁暨CEO。 一位中国电子产业界高层表示，赵伟国在上述收购案操控全局，除利用清华控股资源、也向银行取得足够融资；他表示：“赵伟国是一个真正的生意人，而且对中国的经济、复杂政治情况与资本市场非 常了解。”换句话说，他对市场商机极度敏感，而且他的目标是在高科技领域赚钱，该领域与中国房地产市场相较，并不是一个很好的投资标的。 值得注意的是，紫光集团都是以溢价收购展讯与锐迪科。该集团收购展讯的总金额是17.8亿美元，而锐迪科收购价则是9.1亿美元；对锐迪科每股18.5美元的收购金额，是该公司当周五收盘价17.53美元的5.5%溢价。

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本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：紫光集团的收购动机何在？

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• 锐迪科不愿委身展讯，皆因价格没谈到位HjAesmc

{pagination} 究竟紫光集团如何筹到收购融资？有一位中国产业界高层表示，紫光集团的资本额是8.2亿美元，还低于对锐迪科的收购价；因此他认为锐迪科的幕后真正买主不是紫光集团，但其中有20~30亿美元资金与该集团有关：“中国国营企业的特色就是：所有的信息都是不透明的。” 紫光集团的官网信息显示，该集团的投资领域包括信息科技、能源/环保、生命科学以及材料科学，此外还有职训、金融服务、国际贸易、房地产等等。 那些认为紫光集团收购案是纯粹金融活动的人士，指出此投资行为的动机有三：首先，两大中国本地无晶圆厂芯片设计业者的合并，能在它们各自被联发科击败之前取 得生存机会；第二，这两家Nasdaq上市公司在紫光集团的保护伞下重回私有化，在业务发展上将可取得更多回旋空间，还可取得紫光集团与清华大学的专利技术。 第三，在紫光集团下合并的展讯与锐迪科，必然会在短期之内重新上市；业界消息来源认为，若能透过上市取得更大商机，紫光集团不会浪费时间。 而几乎所有人都同意，锐迪科与展讯的互补性，能在未来顺利完成合并。一位中国半导体产业观察家指出，展讯的唯一强项是TD-SCDMA，锐迪科则是专长于RF，两家公司在打造应用处理器方面的能力都很弱；此外锐迪科擅长IC硬件开发，缺乏软件设计能力。

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展讯为市面上不少TD手机提供解决方案 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：抗衡高通，一定要拿下展讯和锐迪科

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• 锐迪科不愿委身展讯，皆因价格没谈到位HjAesmc

{pagination} 该产业观察家表示，因此展讯与锐迪科的合并，意味着全志与瑞芯微恐怕面临灭亡；因为前两家公司未来将可涉足平板电脑应用处理器市场。 中国产业界人士认为，展讯与锐迪科合并之后的新公司，会偏向聚焦于新一代无线技术研发，不会花太多时间在已经衰退的低阶手机市场竞争；他们指出，目前在中国的GSM功能手机市场，只余联发科与展讯还在激烈竞争。 针对紫光集团的收购案，市场研究机构Forward Concepts总经理Will Strauss则表示，他对该集团几乎一无所知，但：“确实，如果想打造一家足以与高通(在技术能力与营收能力上)匹敌的中国本土企业，展讯与锐迪科是两家我一定不会放过的公司。” 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：Merger Pits Mysterious Tsinghua Unigroup vs. MediaTek，by Junko Yoshida

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• 紫光集团再祭大手笔，“双11”豪取锐迪科
• 展讯借力紫光私有化，回归A股是正途
• 锐迪科不愿委身展讯，皆因价格没谈到位HjAesmc

{pagination} Merger Pits Mysterious Tsinghua Unigroup vs. MediaTek Junko Yoshida PARIS -- The industry landscape among China's fabless chip companies -- fragmented among too many little players fighting for a low-margin smartphone chip business in the domestic market -- is about to change. Through Tsinghua Unigroup's initiative to acquire the leading TD-SCDMA baseband chip vendor Spreadtrum Communications (announced in July) and now China's RF IC leader RDA Microelectronics (disclosed earlier this week), hopes are running high in China that its domestic electronics industry might finally get a consolidated entity powerful enough to compete with Taiwan's MediaTek, if not quite an equivalent to Qualcomm in the United States. According to several sources in China's electronics industry EE Times talked to this week, getting acquired by Tsinghua Unigroup is the most logical and probably the best option left for Spreadtrum, which needs to compete with MediaTek on the high-end smartphone business while fighting off RDA on the low-end of the market. Further, consider that both Spreadtrum and RDA are "competing in a low end market where the profit is razor thin, and the market is declining," one Chinese executive noted. "The consolidation of the two companies is a good thing for China electronics." He expects to see this happen more in the future. The Chinese semiconductor industry, with a lot of smart people working but all of them competing on lower and lower margins, is not sustainable, he explained. While many Chinese industry sources see the recent development positively, opinions differ about what comes next. Some Chinese executives view Tsinghua Unigroup's move as "a pure financial play," while others put more stock in a behind-the-scenes ploy by the Chinese government to strengthen China's electronics industry. Others even go further, predicting a doomsday scenario for other Chinese fabless companies such as Allwinner and Rockchip. About Tsinghua Unigroup Little is known about Tsinghua Unigroup -- especially in the West. When it comes to details of the group's business and people involved in running the business, it's not all that clear even in China, either. Here are the basics. Tsinghua Unigroup is 51 percent owned by Tsinghua Holdings, a 100 percent state-owned limited liability corporation funded by Tsinghua University in China. Forty-nine percent of Tsinghua Unigroup is owned by private entity -- Jiankun Investment Group Co., Ltd. -- controlled by Zhao Weiguo. Weiguo serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tsinghua Unigroup. According to one Chinese electronics industry executive, Weiguo is "playing the whole game by leveraging Tsinghua resources and getting enough bank loans for supporting this deal." He called Weiguo "a real businessman and understands China economics/complicated politics and capital market very well." In short, Weiguo is "somebody who can smell blood from thousands miles away." He is set to make money investing in the high-tech sector, rather than the real-estate business, which isn't looking good right now in China. It's important to note that Tsinghua Unigroup is paying a premium to buy both Spreadtrum and RDA. Tsinghua Unigroup's acquisition of Spreadtrum is a $1.78 billion deal, while RDA is selling itself to Tsinghua Unigroup for about $910 million. The $18.50 per share deal announced by RDA earlier this week represents a premium of 5.5 percent to RDA's Friday close of $17.53 on the Nasdaq. The question is, then, how is Tsinghua Unigroup financing all these deals. Another Chinese industry source said, "The notable thing about Tsinghua Unigroup is that it has a market cap of $820 million, less than what they proposed to RDA." He suspects that the real buyer of RDA is "not Unigroup, but a $2-$3 billion fund which is related to Unigroup." He then added, "That's the beauty of China's state-owned public companies: there is nothing transparent." The Tsinghua Unigroup's website shows that the group has its hands in various fields ranging from information technology, energy/environment, science of life, and science of materials to occupational education, finance services, international trade, and real estate. Pure financial play Those who see Tsinghua Unigroup's acquisitions as "a pure financial play" pose a three-step scenario. First, the consolidation of China's two leading fabless chip companies (Spreadtrum and RDA are currently both public companies traded in Nasdaq) will help them both survive before the two companies get clobbered by MediaTek. Second, by going private again under the umbrella of Tsinghua Unigroup, the two companies will gain more leeway in business development -- in addition to access to the IP portfolio of Tsinghua Unigroup and Tsinghua University. Third, the new Spreadtrum, consolidated with RDA under Tsinghua Unigroup, will "go public in the near term," the sources said. Tsinghua Unigroup won't waste time making a big financial gain by doing so, they added. Complementary Where everyone agrees is about the complementary roles RDA and Spreadtrum can play under the new structure. One Chinese semiconductor industry observer explained, "Spreadtrum is weak in everything except TD-SCDMA, while RDA is strong in RF. Both are weak in application processors." Further, he added, "Spreadtrum's IC R&D is weak, but strong in software. Meanwhile, RDA is very strong in IC R&D, but has no real software development." As a result, combining these two "means doomsday for Allwinner and Rockchip," he noted, because Spreadtrum and RDA could ramp up tablet application processor efforts. The Chinese industry's expectation is that the final entity (new Spreadtrum-RDA) will focus more on new wireless technology R&D, while they will spend less time competing in a declining low-end market. As for the market in feature phones for GSM, the serious competition comes down to just MediaTek and Spreadtrum, they explained. Asked about the latest shopping spree by Tsinghua Unigroup, Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts (Tempe, Arizona), noted that he knows almost nothing about Tsinghua Unigroup. But he added, "Actually, if you wanted to create a China-based company that could (with a lot of work and a lot of money) someday rival Qualcomm, Spreadtrum and RDA are the two companies that I would pick."