The Korean site Zdnet.co.kr reports the Fab producing the Sigma Foveon sensor is for sale. The reason is that Dongbu HiTek (that’s the name of the company owning the fab) had an operating loss of 9 million Dollars in 2013.
It now has to be seen who is going to buy it. Sigma? Or maybe Sony?
found via DicaHub.
10 Responses
From:
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/yonhap-news-agency/140326/hyundai-dongbu-groups-speed-restructuring :
“As for the sale of Dongbu HiTek, U.S.-based GlobalFoundries and Germany’s Bosch have expressed interest as well as South Korea’s LG.”
And the selling has less to do with the losses in this particular division as much as the
troubles of the whole Dongbu group.
P.S. There were only *2* English language news items for the Dongbu HiTek.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Dongbu+HiTek&oq=Dongbu+HiTek#q=Dongbu+HiTek&tbm=nws
Why not Sigma buys it? Otherwise, I bet LG or Samsung.
Samsung should buy it, if they want to get serious about aps-c cameras.
Samsung has better fabs. I don’t see why they need it.
Perhaps they have better fabs, but the tech behind Foveon is really interesting and Samsung could use it to enhance the IQ of its own cameras and stand out among competitors. I think they need something of this kind to finally get noticed in the photographic sector.
Samsung cameras and sensors are “serious” enough, but as Dongbu Hitek is also a Korean company, maybe they want to establish a partnership with them to develop new sensor technology.
As I understand it Sigma owns the patents on the Fovean chip so for them I think it would mean just having to find another Fab with some capacity for doing the work and the expense of new setup costs though the new Fovean chip probably required those anyway. Considering how few chips sigma needs relatively speaking I would have thought finding a new fab would not be a major issue.
Why Sigma needs to look for another fab?
The fab is being sold – not decommissioned.
Change of the owner doesn’t mean sudden change of what can and cannot be manufactured at the fab.
Yes, of course you’re right. I was reacting to the implications of the headline and ignored the obvious possibility that whoever buys the fab might want Sigma’s business,
right. it’s just a fab plant. they just need to hire another one to make their sensor. it doesn’t mean that Sigma is selling their Foveon or selling the technology for other camera manufacturer. the headline did gave a wrong impression to some of the readers here.