Combined revenues of Korea's major LCD driver IC vendors reached a record high of KRW419.4 billion (US$353.97 million) in 2015, with Silicon Works, a subsidiary of LG Electronics, accounting for 96% of total revenues, according to data compiled by Digitimes Research.
Silicon Works' acquisition of a part of LUSEM's system IC business in the first half of 2015 has helped ramp up its revenues generated from large-size COF (chip on film) LCD driver ICs, said Digitimes Research, noting that Silicon Works' LCD driver IC revenues hit a record high of KRW402.6 billion in 2015.
In comparison with Taiwan-based major LCD driver IC suppliers including Novatek Microelectronics, Himax Technologies, ILI Technology (Ilitek), FocalTech Systems and Raydium Semiconductor, only Silicon Works and FocalTech saw their revenues increase in 2015, while the four other Taiwan vendors suffered revenues declines in the year.
FocalTech, a leading supplier of touchscreen controller ICs, managed to ramp up its revenues by taking control of LCD driver IC vendor Orise Technology in early 2015, Digitimes Research commented.
Meanwhile, Silicon Works also saw its operating margin improve to 10.4% in 2015 from 9.1% of a year earlier, while all five Taiwan major LCD driver IC houses saw their operating margins slide down during the same period.
Although Silicon Works' revenues were still lagging behind those of Novatek and Himax in 2015, Silicon Works' operating margin in the year was the second highest among the six major suppliers in Taiwan and Korea, Digitimes Research noted.
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