Foxconn unit to buy American smartphone accessories maker Belkin
27 Mar 2018
Foxconn, the Taiwanese assembler of iPhones for Apple, plans to buy Belkin International, the parent firm of Linksys, a maker of smartphone accessories and home networking products.
FIT Hon Teng, a division of Foxconn, will be paying $866 million to acquire Belkin, as part of a strategy to expand its presence in camera modules used in driverless cars.
“The rapid rise of ‘smart home’ products and the near-term projections for the market provide significant additional tailwinds to future growth,” FIT Hon Teng informed the Hong Kong stock exchange.
Last year, the company had raised nearly $350 million in a public issue. It had also announced plans of expanding into North America.
Belkin has a strong presence in consumer electronics in North and South America, Asia and Europe.
The Taiwan electronics giant, which is investing almost $10 billion in a new plant in Wisconsin in the US, plans to majorly expand its presence there.
However, with growing concerns in the US about the takeover of domestic companies by Asian giants, the new deal will be closely monitored by the authorities, it is felt.
The Committee on Foreign Investments in the US (CFIUS), which is investigating deals involving acquisition of American companies by corporates based abroad, has to approve the new deal.