The logo of Tsinghua Unigroup is seen at its office in Beijing, China. (Photo : Reuters)
State-owned company Tsinghua Unigroup has bought a 6-percent stake in chipmaker Lattice Semiconductor Corp., signalling the company's serious attempts to foray into the overseas semiconductor market, particularly the U.S.
In a filing on April 13, Tsinghua Unigroup managed to acquire stake in Lattice via share purchases on the open market, said The Wall Street Journal. The deal is a welcome development after the Chinese company's failed attempts to invest in other U.S.-based semiconductor firms.
In February, Micron Technologies snubbed a deal with Tsinghua in favor of another Chinese partnership, according to a report in Investor's Business Daily.
Tsinghua's proposed Micron deal was "doomed from the start as U.S. regulators would have shut it down," added the report.
This was also the case in the botched Western Digital-Tsinghua investment plan, which was pegged at $3.8 billion. The deal was flagged for an investigation by U.S. authorities, told the Financial Times.
But with the inked deal with Lattice amounting to $41.6 million, Tsinghua now wants to test the waters--again--in the U.S. in attempts to solidify China's domestic semiconductor industry.
According to the WSJ, "the Lattice move appears to be a test to see if a modest investment would be allowed without running afoul of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. on national security grounds."
As early as now, however, Tsinghua is eliminating the possibility of a takeover. In a phone interview with the WSJ, the group's chairman Zhao Weiguo said that the deal is "purely a financial investment" and that they do not have any plans to acquire Lattice.
The U.S. chipmaker saw shares jump 18 percent to $6.36 on talks of potential acquisition.
Tsinghua is not the only China-based company who has shown interest in foreign semiconductor firms. Shanghai-based National Silicon Industry Group recently made a takeover offer for Finland's silicon wafer maker Okmetic, told the South China Morning Post.
