Brussels, 29/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 20 September, the European Commission cleared the proposed acquisition by the Taiwanese company Foxconn of a subsidiary of US computer manufacturer Dell in Poland. Foxconn provides external assembly services, so-called electronic manufacturing services (EMS), for electronic products such as computers, mobile phones, or televisions to original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Dell's subsidiary in Lodz (Poland) currently supplies Dell's in-house production of computers.
As a result of the transaction, the production capacity of the Polish subsidiary will be transferred to Foxconn. Despite the overlaps between Foxconn and the Polish subsidiary in the assembly of electronic products, the investigation into this takeover, notified on 24 August, illustrated that Foxconn would still face several strong competitors because capacity on the EMS market is not constrained, entry from neighbouring markets is still possible and OEMs have a strong bargaining position vis-à-vis EMS providers. (F.G./transl.fl)