CHINAEUROPE AFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
E-paper\Across America

Deal for Oregon tech firm faces new politics

By Paul Welitzkin in New York | China Daily USA | Updated: 2017-02-02 12:19

The sale of an Oregon-based technology company to Chinese state-owned enterprises faces a review by a US government panel in a new political environment under US President Donald Trump.

In November, Lattice Semiconductor Corp in Portland agreed to be acquired by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners for $1.3 billion. In a US regulatory filing last month, Lattice emphasized that Canyon Bridge's investors are Chinese state-owned enterprises.

Deal for Oregon tech firm faces new politics

Christopher Rolland, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group, a market maker in the securities of Lattice, said having Chinese SOEs as investors "definitely is a sticking point" when the deal is considered by CFIUS, or the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. It is made up of representatives from several federal agencies, including the departments of Treasury, Defense, State and Homeland Security. It reviews foreign acquisitions, mergers and takeovers of US businesses to assess national security concerns.

In light of the new political environment in Washington, Rolland believes the transaction has a 50-50 chance of gaining CFIUS approval. In November, he wrote in a research note that "the Donald could ultimately decide the fate of the deal", referring to President Trump.

In the presidential campaign, Trump was critical of China.

Lattice's main product is a computer chip called a field programmable gate array or FPGA, which are chips that can be programmed after they are manufactured. Rolland said Lattice's FPGAs are used in the low end of the market while competitors Xilinx Inc and Intel Corp's Altera produce chips that are used in higher-end military applications. Lattice doesn't sell chips to the US military.

Last year, more than 20 members of Congress, including one from Oregon, wrote to then Treasury Secretary Jack Lew urging the blockage of the Lattice acquisition over security concerns.

"FPGA technologies are critical to American military applications, and the purchase of an American FPGA designer and manufacturer by a (Chinese)-affiliated firm could disrupt the military supply chain and possibly lead to a reliance on foreign-sourced technologies for many critical Defense Department programs," the lawmakers wrote.

paulwelitzkin@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily USA 02/02/2017 page2)

BACK TO THE TOP
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US