MediaTek Buys Into Goodix to Build Touch Control Capability

Taipei, March 18, 2011 (CENS)--MediaTek Inc. recently announced acquiring a 20% stake in touch-control chip designer Goodix of mainland China for around US$20 million through a subsidiary named Gaintech.

The acquisition will help sharpen MediaTek's competitive edge in the smartphone chip sector against MStar Semiconductor Inc., according to industry executives. MStar, another leading chip design house in Taiwan branching into mobile-phone chip sector from multimedia chip sector, is developing touch-control chips by itself and plans to put the chips into volume production soon.

Goodix, based in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province, is reportedly able to supply touch-control chips available for smartphones, portable gears, netbook computers, and household appliances. It has reportedly shipped around 40 million chips worldwide a year to customers including TCL, Sanyo and BBK.

Taiwan's insiders of touch-control solution industry pointed out that Goodix's solutions are mostly shipped to knock-off handset makers in mainland China.