According to the latest report, MediaTek plans to list its Bluetooth chip subsidiary Airoha Technology this year to raise funds for research and development and to make the company more competitive in hiring amid a historic labor shortage in the semiconductor industry.
Moreover, MediaTek initially planned to list Dafa on the Emerging Stock Market in Taiwan by the end of June, the first step before a full IPO, three people familiar with the matter said.
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MediaTek is a major mobile phone chip supplier to Samsung, Xiaomi, Amazon, Google, Oppo, and Vivo. MediaTek is the second largest company in Taiwan by market capitalization, after TSMC. According to Counterpoint Research data, MediaTek is also the largest mobile phone chip developer in the world in terms of 4G and 5G chipset shipments.
As a Bluetooth chip subsidiary of MediaTek, Dafa provides chips for Sony, Apple’s Beats, JBL, and Xiaomi. In the latest round of private financing, a 10 percent stake in Dafa was sold to a group of venture capital funds and institutional investors at NT$650 a share, three people familiar with the matter said. Based on the company’s current 145 million shares, the valuation is about NT$94.5 billion ($3.3 billion).
The private placement is the largest semiconductor deal in Taiwan’s venture capital community in recent years and could pave the way for the largest chip-industry IPO on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in years, people familiar with the matter said.
According to regulations, Dafa must be listed on the Emerging Market for at least six months before it can apply for an IPO on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Pricing for the IPO has not yet been finalized and will be affected by its performance in the emerging stock market.
Furthermore, MediaTek told the sources that Dafa is making the necessary applications to the Securities and Futures Bureau of the Financial Supervisory Commission to prepare for an Emerging stock market listing, but declined to comment on the details of the deal.
In addition to raising money for research and development, the listing is also aimed at attracting engineers and other workers in a chip industry that is facing a severe labor shortage. Chipmakers from TSMC and UMC to Qualcomm and Intel are ramping up hiring in Taiwan.
“If Tafa is under the MediaTek umbrella, everyone needs to share their bonuses,” said one of the people, referring to how bonuses are roughly evenly distributed among divisions, even if their performance varies. different. “If they belong to an independent public company, it has the potential to attract young talent and existing staff.”
