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UMC Increases Share Holding
in UMCi
Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. May 21, 2004, United Microelectronics
Corporation (TAIEX: 2303, NYSE: UMC), a world leading semiconductor
foundry, today announced that it has decided to purchase 90 million
UMCi shares from UMC Japan (UMCJ). The total cost of the purchase
is US$117 million. After this transaction, UMC will own 95.23% of
UMCi, an increase from the current level of 84.96%
As semiconductor demand remains strong, this investment will enhance
UMC's control of UMCi's capacity allocation. UMCi is currently in
full-scale production, and is focused on manufacturing products
based on UMC's 0.13um and below technologies. UMCi has been extremely
successful in leveraging its parent company's extensive 300mm experience.
This knowledge and experience is currently being applied to its
rapid production ramp-up, along with the implementation of single
wafer processing to reduce lot size and cycle time. Production volume
for the state-of-the-art 300mm automated facility is expected to
reach 10,000 wafers by the end of 2004.
UMCi is located on a 12-hectare (30 acres) site in Singapore's
Pasir Ris Wafer Park. Singapore is a rapidly emerging global IC
manufacturing hub, and its well-established infrastructure and friendly
government policies have attracted investment from the world's leading
semiconductor companies.
About UMC
UMC (NYSE: UMC, TSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry
that manufactures advanced process ICs for applications spanning
every major sector of the semiconductor industry. UMC delivers cutting-edge
foundry technologies that enable sophisticated system-on-chip (SOC)
designs, including 90nm copper, 0.13um copper, and mixed signal/RFCMOS.
UMC is also a leader in 300mm manufacturing; Fab 12A in Taiwan and
Singapore-based UMCi are both in volume production for a variety
of customer products. UMC employs over 9,000 people worldwide and
has offices in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Europe, and the United
States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com.
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