Philips announced a phased plan to sell its TSMC shareholding on 9 March 2007, as part of its decision to leave the semiconductor business. The plan was completed earlier than its stated 2010 target: on 14 August 2008, Philips sold its remaining shares and said it no longer owned a stake in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Why Philips planned to sell its TSMC shares
Philips’s stated reason was strategic: it was exiting the semiconductor business. In the joint March 2007 announcement, Philips CFO Pierre-Jean Sivignon called the sale “a logical consequence” of that decision, following Philips’s 2006 sale of a majority stake in its semiconductor division. This is Philips’s explanation for the transaction, not an independent assessment of its motives.
At the time of the announcement, Philips held 16.2% of TSMC, a holding the companies valued at approximately US$8.5 billion. Philips’s representative on the TSMC board resigned as part of the plan.
What the phased exit plan proposed
The March 2007 announcement described several possible routes to reduce the holding, rather than one immediate sale. Philips intended to sell shares to long-term financial investors in Taiwan and offer American Depositary Shares (ADSs) in the United States. It also planned to participate in TSMC share repurchases and left room for other sales agreed by both companies.
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| Stage in the March 2007 plan | Announced approach |
|---|---|
| Taiwan investor sale | Philips intended to sell up to US$1.75 billion of shares to long-term financial investors in Taiwan. |
| U.S. ADS offering | Philips intended to offer up to US$2.5 billion in TSMC American Depositary Shares in the United States. |
| 2007 repurchase | Philips planned to participate in a TSMC share repurchase of up to approximately US$1.5 billion. TSMC said the repurchase was open to all shareholders; that limit was not an amount Philips alone was expected to sell. |
| Further repurchases | The plan contemplated Philips participating in additional TSMC repurchases between 2008 and 2010. |
| Other sales | Additional sales could take place if mutually agreed. |
How the stake changed, and when the exit finished
The ownership figures show the difference between the staged plan and its eventual completion. The 2010 date was a target stated while Philips still held shares; it was not the date the company ultimately exited.
| Date | Reported stake or action | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 9 March 2007 | 16.2%; approximately US$8.5 billion stated value | Philips and TSMC announced the multi-stage exit plan. |
| November 2007 | 8% remaining | TSMC reported that the Taiwan investor sale of approximately US$1.75 billion in March and the ADS sale of about US$2.56 billion in May had been completed. A buyback was described as the next stage. |
| May 2008 | Approximately 1.3 billion shares, or about 5% of issued shares | Philips said it planned to participate in a TSMC buyback and aimed to reduce its holding to zero before the end of 2010. |
| 14 August 2008 | Sale of approximately 383 million shares; no stake remaining | Philips said the sale to long-term financial investors completed its multi-stage exit. TSMC’s 2008 Form 20-F also records completion on this date through a block trade to mutually agreed long-term investors. |
What Philips reported from the final sale
For the August 2008 sale of approximately 383 million shares, Philips reported proceeds of approximately EUR 455 million and a non-taxable gain of approximately EUR 260 million to be reflected in its third-quarter 2008 financial results. Those figures relate to the final sale; they are distinct from the approximately US$8.5 billion value stated for Philips’s entire holding when the plan was announced in 2007.
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The key distinction is that Philips announced a staged exit in 2007, with further repurchases contemplated through 2010, but completed the sale of its remaining stake on 14 August 2008.
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