The World’s No. 2 OLED Panel Driver IC Supplier
Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki remarked on April 20 that the government is examining whether MagnaChip has a national core technology in the display sector and the sale of the company to China will be determined based on the result of the examination.
At present, the national core technologies of South Korea consist of 71 in the 12 fields including semiconductor manufacturing. According to the current law, a government approval is required in the case of export of such a technology and M&A related to a company that owns such a technology.
MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp., the U.S. HQ of MagnaChip, announced on March 29 that it signed a stock sale agreement with South Dearborn and Michigan Merger Sub, which are investment companies established by Wise Road Capital limited partners. The agreement is related to 100 percent of the HQ shares on the New York Stock Exchange and the size of the agreement is US$1.4 billion.
MagnaChip is the world’s number two OLED panel driver IC supplier behind Samsung Electronics. Hynix Semiconductor, which is now SK Hynix, sold its non-memory arm back in 2004 and MagnaChip originated from it. MagnaChip sold its foundry business unit last year and currently has manufacturing facilities in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province along with a chip design unit.