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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》Hon Hai chairman insists Toshiba bid far from over
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou yesterday tears up a newspaper during a news conference at the company’s headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District. Photo: CNA
By Lauly Li / Staff reporter
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co （鴻海精密） chairman Terry Gou （郭台銘） yesterday said that the firm’s bid for Toshiba Corp’s memorychip unit is not yet over and he thinks Hon Hai has more than a 50 percent chance of winning the bid.
“For all media that think Hon Hai is out of the game, you will regret it,” Gou told an international news conference after Hon Hai’s annual general meeting at its headquarters in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District （土城）.
Gou tore up a Chinese-language newspaper at the conference to express his anger over a report by the publication that its bid for Toshiba’s semiconductor business was doomed.
His remarks came after Toshiba on Wednesday announced that it had chosen a consortium of Innovation Network Corp of Japan （INCJ）, Development Bank of Japan, Bain Capital LP and SK Hynix as its preferred bidders for Toshiba Memory, which was put up for sale in February to cover losses from Toshiba’s nuclear energy business in the US.
Gou said that a Japanese government trade official had interfered in Toshiba’s sale of the unit due to a feud with him, which could be traced back to January last year when Hon Hai expressed its intention to invest in Sharp Corp.
Gou said that Hisayoshi Ando, director-general of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s Commerce and Information Policy Bureau, “ordered” him not to invest in Sharp at a meeting on Jan. 24 last year.
Gou said he had replied in a tough tone.
Two companies in the Hon Hai-led consortium bidding for Toshiba received calls from Ando, who told them not to collaborate with Hon Hai, Gou said, adding that the official told them Hon Hai would “definitely” not win the bid.
“This is an international joke, fraud in the high-tech industry,” Gou said. “If the Japanese government has already made a decision on the sale of the memorychip business, why has it opened the bid to everyone?”
Hon Hai’s handset operation and high-performance computers require a lot of solid-state drives, so investment in Toshiba would help Hon Hai’s supply chain, Gou said.
The company plans to build a memorychip plant in the US if it wins the Toshiba bid, as it will be closer to clients and the US market, Gou said, adding that it would also benefit the trade relationship between Japan and the US, as it would increase manufacturing in the US.
Gou said the company has initiated a “Flying Eagle” project to invest in the US, with combined investments tipped to exceed US$10 billion, generating “tens of thousands” of job opportunities.
Hon Hai is not only going to build plants in the US, it also plans to establish an entire supply chain of flat panels and moldings there, he said.
Hon Hai is in talks with six US states, Gou said, adding that the company would disclose investments in three states in the first announcement and three more states in a follow-up announcement.
Hon Hai has said the six states are Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.
“We will reach a decision between the end of next month and the beginning of August regarding what products to invest in which states,” he said.
Gou said that the US government’s eagerness to attract foreign investment is stronger than he has felt in the past few decades.
Hon Hai is also investing in India, but the investments in the US will come ahead of the Indian investments, he said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
