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Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Himax Technologies

Himax Technologies – A company gaining rapid momentum in the semiconductor industry.

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The semiconductor industry is worth more than $450 billion in today’s market. With every passing day, the demand for the semiconductor industry reaches new heights as the demand for powerful and fast electronic gadgets increases. The semiconductor industry is the main provider of some key components for computers, smartphones, television, game consoles, cars, etc. So, if the demand increases or the market expands for the electronic companies it will positively affect the semiconductor industry as well.

One such semiconductor company that has been booming in recent years is Himax Technologies. It is one of the leading suppliers and fabless semiconductor manufacturers that supply across the globe. The company is based in the Tainan city of Taiwan. Founded in June 2001 by Biing-Seng Wu and Jordan Wu, the company has grown massively in recent years and has become one of the prime suppliers of display drivers and timing controllers that are used in a broad range of electronic devices.

A Brief Introduction

Himax Technologies is a company in the semiconductor industry that mainly focuses on providing solutions to display image processing technologies. The display driver ICs and the timing controllers that are produced by Himax are shipped worldwide for television, mobile phones, virtual reality (VR), digital cameras, tablets, etc production.

Himax Technologies
Image Source: himax.com.tw

This 20-years old company has around 2000 employees with foreign offices in China, Korea, Japan, and the US. With more than 3000 patents, Himax has established itself as a leading provider of display image processing solutions for worldwide customers (electronic brands). So, let’s have a look at the variety of solutions provided by Himax.

Solutions by Himax Technologies

Apart from display drivers and timing controllers, Himax Technologies also provides controllers for touch-sensor displays. Some of them are on-call Touch and Display Driver Integration (TDDI) single-chip solutions, LED drivers, LCOS microdisplays for augmented reality (AR), etc.

For digital cameras, the company offers CMOS image sensors and wafer level optics which are also used in mobile phones and laptops. The sensors are also used in camera security systems in many companies. Some of the other major solutions offered by Himax are Monitor and Projector Scalars, Infinity Color Technologies, 3D Color Engine, MEMS Microdisplays, and Controllers ICs, etc.

Keeping up with time, Himax Technologies has recently joined hands with Edge Impulse to provide a better user experience by deploying machine learning (ML) models in Himax AI processors and Google Tensorflow Lite Microcontrollers framework. These products will operate at ultra-low power and Edge Impulse is helping Himax to simplify the creation of neural networks.

Sustainability in the Company

When it comes to a sustainable approach in business, Himax Technologies is on top of the semiconductor industry. Following the current trends and crises worldwide, Himax also uses an energy-saving and waste reduction approach in day-to-day operation. The company strongly believes in sustainable growth thus providing economic, social, and environmental benefits to its workforce. Himax emphasizes designing products in such a way that it reduces pollution and the product itself should operate in low energy. It also invests a major amount in R&D to develop more green products thus minimizing the impact on our environment.

The Founders: Biing-Seng Wu and Jordan Wu

Biing-Seng Wu completed his studies at National Cheng Kung University who worked in a few companies before founding Himax Himax Technologies. He served as the executive vice president of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp for four years and currently the Chairman of Himax. Jordan Wu, cofounder of Himax Technologies Ltd is currently serving as the CEO of the same.

Recent crisis in Himax

It will be wrong to say that the crisis is only limited to Himax. The origin of a small crisis in Himax has put the business of electronic brands around the world in jeopardy as well. As mentioned earlier, Himax Technologies produces display drivers and timing controllers as two of their major solutions. But in recent days especially from the onset of COVID-19, an understandable miscalculation has led to a shortage of display drivers in the entire semiconductor industry.

The demand is rising rapidly as the display drivers are used in laptops, cars, game consoles, television’s, smartphones, etc and there is no way Himax can meet the demand even after pushing its entire workforce to the fullest. And, due to this shortage, the price of display drivers and hence the electronics are rising sharply. Though the company is making huge profits, Jordan Wu mentioned in a statement that they are not able to meet the demands of the entire customer base and hence remain unsatisfied.

Chips

How Chips worth $1 created a Global Economic Crisis?

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We have heard how the $450 billion semiconductor industry has hit a huge global crisis in this lockdown. Due to lack of production and strain in transportation and availability, the semiconductor industry is going through a big turmoil. But, the question is what exactly sparked this crisis affecting semiconductor companies across the world? The answer to this question is a $1 dollar chip called a display driver.

Due to the shortage of chips, the business didn’t go down for semiconductor companies alone but also for big computer and smartphone companies. These small chips designed by the semiconductor industry powers the super fast and efficient computers or smartphones that make our life better. Though the range of chips designed by any company varies greatly with price, this display driver is the one that is putting the entire silicon industry in jeopardy.

Shortage of Display Drivers

A display driver is one of the many chips used in electronic gadgets. The sole purpose of this driver is to send necessary information or a set of instructions required for illuminating your mobile screen or laptop or any navigation device. Now, the main problem that has arisen in the semiconductor industry and beyond is that there aren’t enough display drivers to suffice the demand. The production units are overwhelming as the firms cannot meet the demand which on the other hand is causing the hike of price.

Chips
Image Source: in.finance.yahoo.com

The shortage of display drivers in the market has also increased the cost for liquid crystal display panels as those drivers are essential to building the same. And, spiking prices of these display panels are affecting the manufacturer of laptops, cars, televisions, airplanes, and high-end refrigerators. Even if a company has all the other necessary parts for building a product it will remain incomplete without the display driver. So, the company’s relying on a source of display drivers has its hands tight.

Situation getting Worse

Along with the global shortage of display drivers, power management chips are also lagging in production. Many automobile industries like Ford, Nissan, and Volkswagen have started scaling back their production but it is very tough to make up for the lost revenue during the pandemic. And, keeping aside the consequences of the pandemic that has caused the shortage of supply in the first place, many other unfortunate incidents are also taking place. For example, a rare winter storm in Texas has caused damage to US productions and a fire in Japan led to the shutting down of a facility for a month.

The imbalance that has been caused by one thing has led to a series of harsh events and it is a tough job to establish balance. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co has said that though they are running the plants at full capacity still they cannot meet the demand. Jordan Wu, co-founder, and CEO of Himax Technologies said that “every application is short of chips” and he hasn’t witnessed anything like this in the past 20 years.

The Origin of the Crisis

The main origin of the crisis and how the situation eventually evolved is explained by Jordan Wu in a very elaborate manner. First of all, when the pandemic started with people stuck inside the house an understandable miscalculation took place. Major industries tried to predict consumer behavior on the basis of the financial crisis model. But what we witnessed was the demand for good laptops, mobiles, game consoles, and other gadgets started increasing as the lockdown started extending.

The main reason was people started working remotely and education was also shifted to an online platform. At this time the display drivers didn’t face any shortage as the automobile industries got into a long pause as people didn’t step out of their house. So, the suppliers stopped shipping chips to the automobile industry. A few months back when people again started stepping out and resuming normal life they preferred traveling in personal cars rather than public transport. This led to the sudden demand for display drivers as the demand for other electronic gadgets didn’t go down.

So, now even if the company’s push all their employees and production units to their fullest, demands cannot be met. Since the demand has hiked and there is a shortage in supply prices of many electronics are increasing. For example, the price of 50-inch LCD television doubled between January and March. With this ongoing situation, Jordan said, “We have not reached a position where we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Byju's

Byju’s acquisition of Aakash Educational Services cost nearly $1 Billion.

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Byju’s has a very broad market in the E-Learning sector not only in India but in other nations as well. The online learning platforms have witnessed a major rise in demand especially with the onset of COVID-19. Since Byju’s has a strong online presence, it is aiming to expand its offline presence as well. This is one of the reasons why Byju’s acquired the offline physical coaching center company, Aakash Educational Services. Byju’s has revealed the news on Monday about acquiring the chain of these coaching centers and accelerating its offline growth.

Byju’s is a very common and broadly used e-learning platform in India. When it comes to understanding concepts and practicing problems for competitive exams, Byju’s is one of the best options for students. And, Aakash institutes are also very famous for providing high-quality coaching mainly for NEET and JEE aspirants.

Closing the deal

The news of the acquisition has been spreading since January that Byju’s has agreed to buy Aakash Educational Services. Back in 2019, Aakash sold a 37.5 percent stake to Blackstone but Byju declined to comment on this topic. Byju’s whose current valuation is $13 billion has acquired the old chain of coaching centers for nearly $1 billion paid in cash and equity for the acquisition, that is, $600 million in cash and the rest in stock (TechCrunch).

Byju’s
Image Source: entrackr.com

When the deal was closed with Blackstone a couple of years ago that made Aakash’s total valuation to $500 million. Currently, Aakash owns more than 200 physical coaching centers all over India where top-quality mentorship is provided to the aspirants. The total number of students enrolled in Aakash coaching centers is more than 250,000.

Change in perspective

Since Aakash Educational Services is well known for providing top-class coaching to the students in India, they didn’t stop teaching during the pandemic. As the classes shifted to a virtual platform, Aakash started offering many services online to the students. So, with Byju’s already having a powerful online presence and Aakash newly making coaching options online, both the companies landed on a mutual interest during the pandemic. Though the deal has been finalized recently, both the companies were discussing terms since last year.

Even after the acquisition, the founders of the company will be attached to it and they will be still working towards providing quality coaching to the students. Aakash Chaudhry, managing director and co-promoter of Aakash Educational Services sounded very optimistic about the deal. He said that this joint partnership between two leading brands in the educational sector will provide “very substantial and value-additive services to students.”

Advantages to the acquisition

With Byju’s being the country’s most valuable Ed-tech company and Aakash having a strong physical presence, both the companies together will create a huge omnipresent brand for Indian students. Aakash Chaudhry has further added that Aakash has provided the students so far with physical coaching and whoever was in need of online tutorials and accessing content anytime, Byju’s has been their savior. So, joining hands together a unique solution will be provided to the students by leveraging physical location and online learning technology.

Byju Raveendran, co-founder, and CEO of the ed-tech startup Byju’s has said that in the future of education especially in our country, both online and offline experiences will be blended. Even before Byju’s started the online platform he used to teach hundreds of students offline on the stadiums. Apart from creating an omnichannel, this partnership is also aiming to reach students from small towns and remote areas in India.

Amit Dixit, co-head of Asia Acquisitions of Blackstone has also mentioned that the presence of an omnichannel “will be the winning model in test prep and tutoring” especially when two of the most important companies in the Indian education sector are joining hands.

Growth of Byju’s

Byju’s has come a long way since 2011 which currently serves over 80 million users. 5.5 million of the total Byju’s audience are paid customers. The company has gained massive recognition very quickly especially among students. The company has made a few big acquisitions so far which includes US-based Osmo and Scholr. One of the biggest acquisitions of the company was in 2020 when they acquired WhiteHat Jr for $300 million.

LG Electronics

LG Electronics to shutdown its Smartphone Sales and Production.

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On 5th April 2021, the South Korean company, LG Electronics revealed the news of the shutdown of its smartphone sales and production. This is disheartening to see that one of the first-ever smartphone brands to launch in the market has to retreat its steps. For a long time, the LG Electronics smartphone division was struggling to survive in the market as the consumer base decreased drastically and they found it hard to find a buyer anymore. So, the company has finalized the decision to completely ending its smartphone sales and production.

As the company has decided to shutdown the production across the globe, it will leave its 10 percent share in North America. In the North American market, the two main company’s dominating the smartphone markets are Samsung and Apple’s mobile phones. The existing users of LG will either choose Samsung or Apple for the next choice. But, according to some analysts, the existing LG customers are more likely to choose Samsung over Apple as the price range especially the mid-range products have more varieties in Samsung.

Loss in LG’s Smartphone Division

It is unfortunate that LG’s smartphone division has been facing recurring losses for quite some time. In the past six years, the total loss suffered by LG’s smartphone sector has summed up to $4.5 billion. With the increasing competition in the market especially with popular mobile brands like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, and many more LG’s product lines got lost in the myriad. Thus dropping out from the smartphone market is a wise choice made by LG as now the company can invest more in electronics, home appliances, and electric vehicle components. LG has a good market when it comes to choosing smart devices for the home.

LG Electronics
Image Source: rprna.com

LG’s smartphone division wasn’t always like this. In 2013, LG’s smartphone was at peak of its business as it brought some good smartphone models with exquisite features to the market. LG was one of the early companies in the smartphone business to bring features like wide-angle cameras to its smartphones. During its accelerated growth, it was the third-largest brand after Samsung and Apple in terms of the largest smartphone manufacturer.

What caused the Downfall?

After LG smartphones reached their peak sale, the company slowly started witnessing a stiff decrease in buyers. The most important reason behind this is receiving slower software updates and most of the flagship products faced both software and hardware mishaps. Today, we can see how fast and often we receive regular updates on our mobile phones. The OS receives regular updates, as well as the options, have also increased. Due to a lack of such strong vision and lack of marketing skill, LG failed to survive in the long run.

With the advent of Chinese companies like Honor, Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, many companies which used to be a hit even a few years ago have started struggling. Some of the companies whose sales have fallen greatly are Nokia, HTC, and BlackBerry. If we look at the statistics, Samsung shipped 256 million phones last year whereas LG shipped only 23 million. (Reuters) This shows that the company was barely surviving the competition.

Other companies will Benefit

Though Samsung will benefit greatly in the absence of LG from the market, other Chinese companies will also witness an increase in sales. The main reason behind this is that the Chinese companies don’t have a very dominating business in the United States due to rivalry between Beijing and the US, especially in recent times. But, in the case of Latin America, the Chinese smartphone business is expected to boom now that LG has completely disappeared. The company is expected to totally shut down the mobile sector by 31st July of this year.

In South Korea, the employees in the smartphone division will be shifted to other LG sectors but at the local level in other regions, this will bring uncertainties in employment. In spite of shutting down the smartphone division, LG will retain the 4G and 5G core technology patents. It will also provide service support and updates to its existing customers for a certain period of time

Mitsubishi Group

The Japanese Multinational Conglomerate Mitsubishi Group completes more than 150 years of its journey.

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Mitsubishi group is one of the biggest multinational conglomerates based in Tokyo, Japan. The Mitsubishi Group has subsidiaries in various industries from oil and gas to automotive companies. The company was founded by Yataro Iwasaki back in the 1870s. Though the company has a lot of members spreading wings in different industries, the three main core members also known as the “Three Great Houses” comprise MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

The origin of the Mitsubishi Group dates back to 1870 when Iwasaki started the company with others. family members. But, a lot changes in the post-world war situation. So, let’s have a better look at the history of the company which is carrying its legacy for the past 150 years.

The Beginning of the Mitsubishi Group

Iwasaki initially worked for the Tosa Clan which was one of the most dominant merchants in Japan during the 1800s. While the clan business was thriving in Japan, the Meiji government created a new policy banning the clan-led businesses which led two powerful members of the Tosa Clan to establish a new company called Tsukumo Shokai in 1870. In 1873, Yataro was completely in charge of the company who then founded Mitsubishi Shokai. The company’s headquarters eventually moved to Tokyo and the business was renamed Mitsubishi Jokisen Kaisha.

Mitsubishi Group
Image Source: fortune.com

The company started working very closely with the government as the Mitsubishi ships were used to transfer troops to Taiwan and Satsuma in 1877. Mitsubishi’s financial base became very strong after this operation and the company started flourishing under Iwasaki’s leadership. In the next few years, Iwasaki invested in new mining technology thus helping his brother’s business, and later acquired a few mines in Japan. In 1884, Mitsubishi purchased the Nagasaki shipyard from the Japanese government.

In 1885, Yanosuke Iwasaki took the place of Yataro Iwasaki as he passed away. Yanosuke was the younger brother of Yataro and the second president of the Mitsubishi Group. The new president played a major role in expanding and diversifying the company into new fields. But soon as promised to his elder brother, the reins of power were transferred to the next generation and Hisaya Iwasaki at 28 became the new president.

Entering into a new era

The young Iwasaki went to Wharton school and his leadership brought some new perspective in both business and management. The entire Mitsubishi group was then divided into various sectors like mining, banking, shipbuilding, etc and the cost and responsibility were divided accordingly. In the 1910s the company was going through great economic growth and Hisaya stepped down, passing the reins to Koyata Iwasaki. Koyata was in charge of the company during the economic depression in the early 20th century. Even in these difficult times, Koyata was committed to quality and fair business. His main idea was to shape a profitable and sustainable business which became the most important principles of the company.

While the company became one of the most powerful conglomerates in Japan, post world war II, the Mitsubishi group was forced to re-launch as independent companies. But in 1954 the companies again merged and became a single entity. In the second half of the 1900s, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation was booming. In 1969, Mitsubishi Foundation was formed which supports social welfare and research programs.

One of the most important reasons behind the success of Mitsubishi Group is its leadership. Every president that served the company embedded some strong principles in the work ethic and evolved by bringing western ideas of business and architecture into the game. The company stood strong even during the economic turmoil and during and after the world wars. Currently, the company is embarking on a new journey exploring beyond our planet.

About the Founder: Yataro Iwasaki

Born in 1835, Yataro Iwasaki understood and valued the importance of education highly. Yataro received the kind of education only a few fortunate people could afford during the time. He was born and brought up in a small village of Japan called Tosa and eventually started working for the Tosa Clan which marked the onset of his remarkable journey. While he was the president of the Mitsubishi group he introduced many new modern technologies which eventually led to uncovering some valuable mines for the company. He was the one who expanded Mitsubishi into other fields like warehousing and finance.

ARMv9

Intel’s market competitor Arm introduces Armv9 with major architectural updates in a long time.

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After a very long time, Arm has introduced a major update unveiling the biggest technical overhaul with Armv9. With this new chip, Arm is all set to give a very tough market competition to Intel which is the world’s biggest chipmaker. With Armv9 the company has implemented major modifications to the chips, the first being Artificial Intelligence (AI). The AI revolution is a major breakthrough of this century unleashing new potential for every industry. And, Arm has designed the new chip to handle the capabilities of machine learning (ML) for security and other purposes.

Major Upgrades by ARM

Every day millions of devices are getting connected with the help of the internet and Arm is trying to enhance the computing abilities with its products. With the help of advanced architectural chips powered by AI, many devices are exploring new capabilities. The AI software helps greatly many industries to be very dynamic and provide real-time solutions and updates. With the launch of Armv9, the company has said that the upgrades are needed to support the spread of computing beyond phones, PCs, and servers. Arm wants the presence of its technology everywhere and that it becomes the next big solution for the tech industry.

Simon Segars, CEO of Arm, said that “As we look toward a future that will be defined by AI, we must lay a foundation of leading-edge compute that will be ready to address the unique challenges to come.” He further explained that Armv9 is the next computing answer for the industries trying to harness the power of AI and at the same time keeping the security in check. The company’s next 300 billion Arm-based chips will be driven by extremely powerful design and security.

Source: arm.com

Arm’s technology and processor designs are currently dominant in the smartphone industry but the company is gradually trying to expand in PCs and server fields as well. Currently, it sells its designs and licenses an instruction set to Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm.

The New Armv9 Architecture

As the number of chips designed and shipped by Arm increases every year, very soon 100 percent of the world’s shared data will be processed on Arm. With the increasing demand for Arm’s chip, the responsibility of the company increases as well to enhance the capabilities for improved performance and better security. According to the company, these are two main priorities of Armv9 and that it will accelerate to provide more specific computing for AI, Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G gain momentum.

ARMv9
Image Source: bbc.com

Enhanced security

To tackle the security problem that is increasing in the tech world much rapidly, Arm is introducing the Arm Confidential Compute Architecture (CCA). This feature will help shield portions of code and data from access or modification while in-use, even from privileged software, by performing the computation in a hardware-based secure environment.

Henry Sanders, corporate vice president and chief technology officer, Azure Edge and Platforms at Microsoft said that “The increasing complexity of use cases from edge to cloud cannot be addressed with a one-size-fits-all solution.” Due to this reason heterogeneous computing is becoming more versatile and hence in demand among hardware and software developers.

Source: arm.com

Arm has made this possible in collaboration with Microsoft thus establishing a synergy between hardware and software. Arm has the capability of powering billions of devices and connecting them in a heterogeneous computing ecosystem.

Better performance through system design

Arm’s chip design has always increased the CPU performance and Armv9 will continue to do so. Arm says that the Armv9 generation will increase the CPU performance by 30 percent over the next two generations of mobile and infrastructure CPUs. So, Arm’s Total Compute Design methodology will accelerate overall compute performance through focused system-level hardware and software optimizations and an increase in use-case performance (Arm.com).

The new Armv9 design will give a tough competition to Intel as many companies are slowly inclining towards Arm’s processors.