TAIPEI (Dow Jones News) -- ASE Test Ltd., the world's largest independent chip-testing company, said it agreed to pay $98 million for a 70 percent stake in ISE Labs, a Silcon Valley-based company that tests integrated circuits.
ASE, based in Singapore, is a unit of Taiwan's Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc., the world's second-largest independent packager of integrated circuits.ISE Labs has facilities in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as the United States.
Under the agreement, expected to be completed by the end of next month, ASE will buy 12.2 million shares of ISE's outstanding stock for $8 apiece.
In January 1998, ASE became the first foreign-based business to be listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange after it sold 120 million Taiwan depositary receipts.