TSMC plans R&D hiring, spends on machinery
Offering the latest sign of a possible tech recovery, TSMC confirms it is hiring a few hundred additional R&D staff and has filed statements as to $162 million in machinery acquisitions.
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- EDN, April 17, 2009
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co has confirmed it is hiring in R&D and has stated approximately $162 million (5.5 billion Taiwanese dollars) in machinery spending.
The TSMC staffing comes after the foundry in December announced a hiring freeze. At that time, the company noted that it would consider making exceptions under special circumstances. TSMC CEO Rick Tsai has also said several times since then that there will be no cutbacks to R&D.
"In principle the hiring freeze remains in place, but in the interest of investing for the future, we do plan to hire a few hundred additional staff in the next few months for our R&D and Design and Technology Platform (DTP) organizations, and also to support new 300-mm capacity," a Taiwan-based spokesman for TSMC confirmed with Electronic News.
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The spokesman did not detail what TSMC locations these employees would be working at.
Separately, TSMC today filed several statements with the Taiwan Stock Exchange announcing the acquisition of assets. The filings focus on machinery equipment and note companies including Applied Materials, ASML, and KLA-Tencor, but do not specifically state what machinery is being acquired or what the machinery will be used for.
The two statements from TSMC offer the latest sign of a possible semiconductor industry recovery, at least within the manufacturing and equipment space. The statements directly follow comments from ASML made this week that the company expects the demand collapse to turn around in the second half of the year, with capital spends coming in 2010. SEMI alsoreported this week that the March book-to-bill ratio for North American equipment manufacturers improved as compared to February's results.
Further, while the hiring news does follow a recently announced 200 employee reduction at TSMC, it, as well as the company's machinery purchasing filings, follows on TSMC's March sales report, which beat expectations. In March, TSMC's net sales were approximately $402 million (13.62 billion Taiwanese dollars), a decrease of 48.7% from March 2008 sales but an increase of 18.4% from February 2009 sales.
The company also raised its revenue estimates for Q1 in March on quick orders, primarily from mainland China market. TSMC is slated to report on its Q1 on April 30.
Hsinchu, Taiwan-based TSMC also announced today that its board has approved four candidates for independent director. They include three current TSMC directors, Sir Peter Leahy Bonfield, Stan Shih, and Carly Fiorina, as well as former Texas Instruments Chairman Thomas J Engibous. The four candidates will stand for election at TSMC's annual general meeting on June 10.
