Today we have for you a wild rumour, it includes, the world's biggest dedicated semiconductor producer, an ailing Taiwanese phone maker and a Japanese company who makes tonnes of tech, but wants to leave phones well alone. So what is it that links TSMC, HTC and Panasonic in this tale? Well there is a Japanese newspaper has hinted at the possibility that HTC and TSMC could team up to buy Panasonics smartphone arm!
The link to HTC seems obvious, they are a smartphone company and they are having a few of their own troubles, but there's nothing out of place on that front. TSMC (or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is the biggest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry and you'll probably know them for making chips for Apple, Qualcomm and a heck of a lot more people too!
The question we were asking ourselves was 'what would those two want with Panasonic?' and to tell the truth we're not sure, but that's the joy of rumours sometimes crazy things come true! Slashgear have suggested that Panasonic's mobile arm, aside from making phones, also produce base-station and infrastructure equipment, so this could possibly be a destination for some of TSMC's SoCs. For HTC though we can only think that Panasonic have a good knowledge of the Japanese smartphone market, where HTC recently launched the J Butterfly, but we don't think there's much room for growth there.
All we have to go on is this Japanese report which currently says discussions are ongoing and there's supposedly stumbling points over price and worker retention at the moment. Don't be too surprised if we never hear of this again, but just in case there is something in this we will be sure to let you know as and when we hear!
What are your thoughts on this? Could HTC spend their money better elsewhere? Does Panasonic have any use to these Taiwanese companies? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
SankeiBiz Via Slashgear and UnwiredView.
