中国国企紫光集团拟斥资230亿美元收购美光科技

    据《华尔街日报》报道，中国最大微芯片制造商紫光集团正准备斥资230亿美元收购美国内存芯片厂商美光科技。

    如果进行顺利，这将成为史上规模最大的中国企业在美收购行动，远远超过2013年双汇以71亿美元收购史密斯菲尔德食品的纪录。

    不过，《华尔街日报》称本次收购还只是处于筹备阶段。报道还引述美光科技发言人的话说，该公司尚未接到任何收购报价。

    如果付诸实施，它很可能引起美国政府的密切关注。以前美方曾以安全为理由多次阻止中国公司收购美国企业，最著名的案例莫过于2005年中海油收购优尼科的计划以失败告终。

    报道指出，最有可能审核本次收购的是由来自十几个政府部门的官员组成的美国外国投资委员会。

    不过，紫光集团在美国确实有一些盟友。去年，英特尔收购了该集团20%的股份；今年5月，惠普将设在中国的通信网络子公司的多数股权转让给了紫光。

    紫光集团为清华控股旗下国有企业，后者则由清华大学控股。该集团以成为芯片制造行业领军者为己任，它在这个领域仍落后于美国、台湾和韩国公司。去年中国设立了200亿美元的政府基金，以提升中国的芯片制造水平。

    紫光集团打算买技术，而不是开发技术。但近几周，芯片领域出现了一阵并购风潮，安华高科技 斥资370亿美元收购了博通；英特尔也和Altera达成协议，将以167亿美元的价格收购后者。这缩小了紫光的可选范围。

    如若收购成为现实，紫光的收购成本将远低于去年，当时周期性因素仍在支撑美光的股价。从那时起，美光的股价已下跌50%以上，部分原因正是投资者认为该公司将错过行业整合的顺风车。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    校对：詹妮

    Tsinhgua Unigroup Ltd., the biggest microchip company in China, is preparing a $23 billion bid for memory chip maker Micron Technology Inc. MU 11.30% , according to The Wall Street Journal.

    If it goes ahead, the bid would be the biggest ever acquisition of a U.S. company by a Chinese one, dwarfing the $7.1 billion purchase of Smithfield Foods by Shuanghui International in 2013.

    However, the WSJ said that the deal is still only being prepared, and quoted a Micron spokesman as saying that it hadn’t received an offer.

    If it does go ahead, the deal is likely to attract the scrutiny of U.S. officials, who have blocked Chinese takeover attempts in the past on security grounds–notably, CNOOC’s bid for oil producer Unocal Inc. in 2005.

    The body most likely to review it would be the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, which brings together officials from more than a dozen government departments and agencies, the WSJ said.

    Tsinghua Unigroup does have some friends in the U.S. though. Intel Corp. INTC -0.27% bought a 20% stake in the company last year, while Hewlett-Packard HPQ -0.75% sold its Chinese-based networking subsidiary to it in May.

    The state-owned company, set up by academics at the elite Tsinghua University, has taken upon itself the role of becoming a national champion in the chip-making sector, where it has lagged U.S., Taiwanese and Korean companies. China set up a $20 billion state-backed fund last year to bolster its expertise in the sector.

    Tsinghua’s options for buying in expertise rather than developing it have narrowed in recent weeks due to a wave of consolidation in the sector, with Broadcom Corp. BRCM 1.28% buying Avago Technologies Ltd. for $37 billion, and Intel agreeing to buy Altera [fortune-stock symbol=”ALTR” for $16.7 billion.

    A deal would be a lot cheaper for Tsinghua now than it would have been last year, when Micron’s shares were still supported by cyclical tailwinds. They’ve fallen by more than 50% since then–due also in part to the perception that it is missing out on the consolidation trend.