3SOF

MOS: Q1 EPS 18c vs 21c Meets 18c Est; Guidance In-Line with Consensus
Thursday , May 03, 2007 16:32ET

QUARTER RESULTS
ChipMOS Technologies Bermuda LTD (IMOS) reported Q1 results ended March 2007. Q1 Revenues were $172.90M; +30.98% vs yr-ago; MISSING revenue consensus by -0.37%. Q1 EPS was 18c; -14.29% vs yr-ago; MATCHING earnings consensus.

Q1 RESULTS      Reported      Year-Ago     Y/Y Chg      Estimate    SURPRISE
----------  ------------  ------------  ----------  ------------  ----------
Revenues:       $172.90M      $132.00M     +30.98%      $173.54M      -0.37%
----------  ------------  ------------  ----------  ------------  ----------
EPS:                 18c                21c              -14.29%           18c           0.00%
----------  ------------  ------------  ----------  ------------  ----------

GUIDANCE

Q2-07 Revenue Outlook [$173 - $182M]: revenue for the second quarter of 2007 will be in the range of approximately US$173 million to US$182 million The Q2-07 revenue forecast is in-line with current consensus estimates.

From Briefing:

08:39 IMOS Chipmos Technology: UTAC private equity takeover multiple implies more than a double for ChipMOS - Merriman (6.97 )

Merriman notes the United Test and Assembly Center, a competitor to IMOS, announced on Tuesday the intent of Texas Pacific Group and Affinity Equity Partners to acquire the co via their joint venture Global A&T Electronics. Firm believes important customers include Broadcom Corp. (BRCM), Marvell Technology Group (MRVL) and SanDisk (SNDK). Firm says the bid price of $0.76 per share equates to a $1.43 bln market cap and a $1.69 bln enterprise value. Using this multiple for IMOS, firm gets a stock price for IMOS of $15.32 or a 120% premium to where it trades; not to mention IMOS was FCF-positive last quarter while UTAC was not.

IMOS update:

ChipMOS SIGNS REGISTRATION RIGHTS AGREEMENT WITH THREE MAJOR SHAREHOLDERS

Hsinchu, Taiwan, August 8, 2007 – ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD.
("ChipMOS" or the "Company'') (Nasdaq: IMOS) today announced that, on
August 8, 2007, the Company signed a Registration Rights Agreement
(the "Agreement") with Giant Haven Investments Limited, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Mosel Vitelic Inc. ("MOSEL") (TAIEX: 2342), ProMOS
Technologies Inc. ("ProMOS") (TAIEX: 5387) and Powertech Technology
Inc. ("Powertech") (TAIEX: 6239) under which the Company granted to
MOSEL, ProMOS and Powertech certain rights to require the Company to
register their common shares for sales under the U.S. Securities Act
of 1933.

The Company's major shareholder, MOSEL, announced on July 27, 2007 a
private sale of 8,121,266 common shares of ChipMOS held through Giant
Haven Investments Limited to ProMOS and Powertech (the "Transaction").
After the Transaction, MOSEL will hold 10,850,052, or 13.1% of
ChipMOS' outstanding common shares, and each of ProMOS and Powertech
will hold 4,060,633, or 4.9% of ChipMOS' outstanding common shares.

&

SPIL disposes of KYEC shares
Ingrid Lee, Taipei; Esther Lam, DIGITIMES [Friday 10 August 2007]

With Siliconware Precision Industries (SPIL) already noting that the company would gradually dispose of its shares at affiliates, the company has now announced the sale of King Yuan Electronics Company (KYEC) shares.

SPIL announced on August 9 that it had disposed of 11.3 million shares of KYEC at a per unit price of NT$2.72 billion from July 11 to August 9. The recognized gain will be NT$189 million. After the share disposal, SPIL's stake in KYEC has been reduced from 7.9% to 6.76%.
While SPIL company chairman Bough Lin previously said the company has scheduled the disposal of shares of ChipMOS Technologies and Sigurd Microelectronics, he also noted that SPIL does not plan to reduce its stake in Phoenix Precision Technology (PPT) as the company is a vital IC substrate partner for SPIL. SPIL formed its so-called "virtual SPIL group" in 2000 through investment in fellow industry players. The testing and packaging house aimed to establish a complete supply chain that could offer it a stronger stance to compete against Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) and Amkor Technology. At one point,
this virtual group saw its group sales outperform that of rivals, but members within the group are also running into business conflicts with one another, industry players commented. The order bidding situation between group members has become severe, especially for those orders related to United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), according to industry sources.


&

ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES Second Quarter 2007 Results Conference Call
Wednesday August 15, 2007 - 7:00 PM ET

Slide update:

slides update:

IMOS is on my watchlist 

TCP quickly loses ground to COF in driver IC packaging
Ingrid Lee, Taipei; Rodney Chan, DIGITIMES [Tuesday 21 August 2007]

Tape-carrier packaging (TCP) is coming under heavy price pressure in the third quarter as it is being quickly replaced by chip-on-film (COF) packaging as the mainstream technology for driver IC packaging amid growing demand for smaller and slimmer consumer electronics.

While COF utilization at back-end service suppliers is mostly at 90% or more in the third quarter, TCP suppliers are resorting to pricing in order to keep their capacity running, the observers said. ChipMOS Technologies last week also pointed out that the TCP market was under price pressure.

With LCD panels' resolution increasing, the driver IC pin count is growing and the pitch reducing. Because of its technological limitations for accommodating finer pitch, TCP started to see COF emerge as a replacement mainstream driver IC packaging technology about three years ago. Although Chipbond Technology chairman FJ Wu estimates that in 2006 the industry still saw more TCP capacity than COF capacity, he noted that by the first quarter of 2007, TCP had already taken a large lead over COF in terms of the amount of equipment deployed.

Price pressure also emerged in the first half of the year, though prices did not go down much. However, now prices are decreasing even during the third-quarter high season, the pressure for further price drops will be stronger when the low season comes, the observers said.

Wu said as TCP equipment cannot be adjusted to COF, Chipbond started focusing on COF when purchasing equipment two years ago. However, companies that invested heavily in TCP equipment now face losses when they have to phase out their equipment, the observers added.

Currently Chipbond's COF monthly capacity amounts to 34 million units, and will increase to 40 million units by the end of the year, Wu said, adding the company does not have too much pressure from the TCP segment, because it currently only has a monthly TCP capacity of 5 million units. Chipbond's utilization for COF was 80% in the second quarter, and is expected to reach almost 90% for the third quarter, according to the observers.

International Semiconductor Technology (IST) was running at 80% for its COF capacity in the second quarter, and it plans to expand its COF capacity 10% to 40 million units in the third quarter, the observers said.

ChipMOS' COF capacity is maintaining a 90% utilization rate in the third quarter, and will top 90% in the fourth quarter, the observers added.

ChipMOS FILES PATENT INFRINGEMENT SUIT AGAINST WALTON ADVANCED ENGINEERING INC.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007 08:00ET

HSINCHU, Taiwan, Sept. 5 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD. ("ChipMOS" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: IMOS) announced today that its 99.14% owned subsidiary, ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC. ("ChipMOS Taiwan") filed a lawsuit on September 5, 2007 Taiwan time in Kaohsiung District Court against Walton Advanced Engineering, Inc. ("Walton"), alleging infringement by Walton of two of ChipMOS Taiwan's BGA (Ball Grid Array) package related patents which are used for DDR II SDRAM devices.

ChipMOS Taiwan obtained from the retail market several branded memory modules packaged by Walton and sent them to a professional appraisal institution for investigation. ChipMOS Taiwan decided to file the litigation based upon the investigating report of this professional appraisal institution, which concluded that the package device employed on the aforementioned modules infringed ChipMOS Taiwan R.O.C. patent no. 207627 "Substrate on Chip Packaging Process" and patent no. 207525 "Substrate on Chip Packaging Process".

For Patent Summary, please refer to the link:
http://xprnnews.xfn.info/chipmos/patent.htm .

ChipMOS highly values intellectual property while continuously focusing on the R&D of advanced technology and products. As of July 31, 2007, ChipMOS and ChipMOS Taiwan have accumulated 456 registered and active patents, which is a key factor in the Company's leading status of memory and LCD driver SATS (Semiconductor Assembly and Test Services) industry. In order to protect its patents and shareholders' rights, ChipMOS Taiwan decided to file the patent infringement lawsuit against Walton, seeking NT$15 million in monetary damages at the initial stage for the losses ChipMOS Taiwan suffered as well as a court order prohibiting Walton from using the allegedly infringing technology.

&
ChipMOS likely to gain LCD driver IC and memory backend production orders from Samsung
Ingrid Lee, Taipei; Esther Lam, DIGITIMES [Thursday 6 September 2007]

Samsung Electronics is releasing more of its LCD driver IC and memory backend production orders to subcontractors. ChipMOS Technologies is said to be in talks with Samsung for these potential orders, according to industry sources.

Following the outsourcing of LCD driver IC chip-on-glass (COG) orders to Chipbond Technology, industry sources have suggested that the Korea-based chipmaker is in talks with ChipMOS over LCD driver IC packaging and memory orders.

Executives from Samsung visited the ChipMOS Shanghai plant during August to assess the outsourcing of LCD driver IC COG orders as the company is seeing its LCD driver ICs for small- and medium-size panels persistently expanding.

While the orders for LCD driver ICs are still uncertain, both parties have already entered into the price negotiation and capacity booking stage for the memory packaging orders, the sources said. If ChipMOS succeeds in its bid for orders it will become the first memory backend production subcontractor for Samsung.

fyi: updated IMOS presentation!
together with the Samsung rumor, IMOS is back on my watchlist 

part 2 

another lawsuit:
ChipMOS FILES PATENT INFRINGEMENT SUIT AGAINST WALTON CHAINTECH CORPORATION
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 08:00ET

HSINCHU, Taiwan, Sept. 12 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES (Bermuda) LTD. (''ChipMOS'' or the ''Company'') (Nasdaq: IMOS) announced today that its 99.14% owned subsidiary, ChipMOS TECHNOLOGIES INC. (''ChipMOS Taiwan'') filed a lawsuit on September 12, 2007 Taiwan time in Taiwan Banciao District Court against Walton Chaintech Corporation (''Walton Chaintech''), alleging infringement by Walton Chaintech of two of ChipMOS Taiwan's BGA (Ball Grid Array) package related patents which are used for DDR II SDRAM devices.

ChipMOS Taiwan obtained from the retail market several ''APOGEE'' branded memory modules manufactured by Walton Chaintech and sent them to a professional appraisal institution for investigation. ChipMOS Taiwan decided to file the litigation based upon the investigating report of this professional appraisal institution, which concluded that the package device employed on the aforementioned modules infringed ChipMOS Taiwan R.O.C. patent no. 207627 ''Substrate on Chip Packaging Process'' and patent no. 207525 ''Substrate on Chip Packaging Process''.

ChipMOS highly values intellectual property and recognizes its responsibility to protect its patents and the benefits of its shareholders, and to seek a fair return on its efforts in R&D activities. ChipMOS Taiwan decided to file the patent infringement lawsuit against Walton Chaintech, seeking NT$15 million in monetary damages at the initial stage for the losses ChipMOS Taiwan suffered as well as a court order prohibiting Walton Chaintech from using the allegedly infringing technology.

ChipMos Technologies "overweight," target price reduced - update

Wednesday, October 10, 2007 1:44:59 PM ET
Lehman Brothers

NEW YORK, October 10 (newratings.com) - Analyst Dave Egan of Lehman Brothers maintains his "overweight" rating on ChipMos Technologies Inc (CHY.FSE), while reducing his estimates for the company. The target price has been reduced from $9 to $8.

In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the company's FCF generation is likely to be driven by controlled capex spending and continued top-line growth. ChipMos Technologies' share price could come under pressure in the near term on account of negative DRAM sentiment and the company's leading shareholder expressing an intention to sell shares, the analyst says. The EPS estimates for 2007 and 2008 have been reduced from $0.87 to $0.82 and from $1.45 to $1.05, respectively.

update