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http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20131231PD205.html


Shares of MediaTek, MStar trending upward prior to official merger

Share prices of MediaTek and MStar Semiconductor have been trending upward on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) recently as the two IC design houses are to officially merge on February 1, 2014, according to market sources.

More than 1,000 or one-third of MStar's R&D staff are to be incorporated into MediaTek's handset solution business unit after the merger, which will give a boost to the competitiveness of MediaTek's smartphone solutions, said the sources.

In addition to smartphone solutions, the handset solution unit has also been engaging in developments of feature phone solutions, as well as touchscreen controller ICs, power management (PWM) ICs and other handset related IC parts.

However, MediaTek may face strong competition from China-based Tsinghua Unigroup in the China market in 2014 and beyond as Unigroup has announced the acquisition of China-based IC design house RDA Microelectronics, the sources noted.

Since Unigroup also acquired China-based handset solution vendor Spreadtrum Communications in July 2013, an integration of RDA and Spreadtrum could make Unigroup a strong contender in the smartphone solution segment, commented the sources.

MediaTek, Qualcomm and Unigroup are to compete fiercely in China's smartphone solution market later on, stated the sources.