元太併購E Ink個案研究─兼論平板電腦興起之影響

Abstract

在競爭壓力加劇下，中小尺吋廠商紛紛轉型，如彩晶、華映、勝華等轉往觸控面板領域，元太則另採途徑，藉由併購E Ink整合上游搶攻電子紙市場，採取與同業不同思維與發展領域。

雖然Panasonic與Sony於2004年即推出電子紙顯示器產品，不過發展並不順利，市場規模也未見起色，而在2007年Amazon推出Kindle並廣受消費者好評後，市場開始快速起飛，根據Displaybank與拓墣產研所預估，2010年電子紙應用市場規模為4.01億美元，其中電子書閱讀器應用模組市場規模為3.57億美元，佔電子紙應用市場比重89%，為電子紙最主要應用。

就同樣具有可攜式與螢幕可觀看特性的手機與NB產品定位，以尺吋與重量來看，與電子書閱讀器產品規格並不重疊。其次，就功能性來說，相較於手機重行動通訊、NB重文書處理，電子書閱讀器僅著重閱讀功能，具有獨特產品定位，不過APPLE推出iPad後，為平板電腦創造新的商機，由於電子紙與平板電腦產品定位較為重疊，也對電子紙市場發展帶來較大競爭壓力。

本文除以購併與綜效理論為基礎，檢視元太併購E Ink個案效益，也將平板電腦影響納入研究範圍，進而探討電子紙產業發展方向，除期待對欲跨入電子紙產業廠商提供參考與建議，也希望可為欲藉由併購上游關鍵技術廠商做為借鏡。

Due to the low profit of competitive TFT-LCD market, there are more and more suppliers devoted themselves in to develop new technology for small-and-middle size panel. Some suppliers change their focus to touch panel like Hannstar、CPT、Wintek.

In this case study, it focuses on e-paper supplier development and business operation model of PVI researching. Because of different applications from NB, telecommunication products…etc., there are increasing demand of e-readers and more and more suppliers devoted themselves into the new industry. Among the suppliers, PVI is most outstanding and taking the biggest share of this booming market.

e-paper was ever released by Panasonic and Sony in 2004 without hot pplications of Kindles of Amazon and estimated to create $401 million dollars in e-paper market including $357 million dollars in e-reader market in 2010. Although the mature technology of e-paper and the niche application bring e-reader marketing growing soon, there are still some competitors continuing release new products like APPLE iPad to take the market share. The tablet application is popular and also catching eyes from consumers. It strikes against the market of e-Paper.

This study is based on M&A and synthesis effect theories and also considered the new application-Tablet market to research the beneficial result of the acquisition from PVI to EInk.The results reward for e-paper relative suppliers.