TAINAN, Taiwan, Jan. 14, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Himax Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: HIMX ) (“Himax” or “Company”), a leading supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today announced the Company is seeing customer additions and encouraging mass production shipment of its liquid crystal on silicon ("LCOS") microdisplays and wafer level optics ("WLO") products for augmented reality ("AR") applications thanks to significant technology advancement and breakthrough. Himax additionally announced its new design-ins in the next generation panels of virtual reality (“VR”) devices for two brand-leading VR companies.
Himax's AR/VR design engagements with current and new customers now cover leading companies in the technology, software, gaming, consumer, search, social media, military and mobile sectors. The Company is increasing manufacturing and shipping of LCOS microdisplays and WLO products for several industry leading customers’ AR systems and devices.
For VR applications, Himax has won new design-ins in the next generation panels of virtual reality (“VR”) devices for two top-notch VR companies. Himax's expertise in OLED DDIC, timing controller, power management IC, and ASIC provide its VR customers with customized system-on-chips (SoC), enabling fast refresh rates and high-resolution imaging essential for VR products. These new VR products have received great interests and positive feedbacks at 2016 CES, clearly establishing itself, along with AR devices, as a new product category.
“At CES last week, Himax's display and optical expertise in the field of AR/VR and technology readiness in machine vision have enabled multiple customers’ applications across glasses, automotives, toy, artificial intelligence, holographic computing, and IoT markets,” began Jordan Wu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Himax Technologies, Inc. "Since 2006, we have invested more than $100 million in the development and manufacturing of these technologies, which has led to our unique leadership in the sector. We are excited about the business opportunities in AR/VR in 2016 and beyond as our customers are launching their products. We are also encouraged by the additional design-in flow in various next generation product segments mentioned above. These business opportunities resemble significantly higher content value in each device, and will contribute to gross and operating margins for Himax in the long run. It’s a strong testament to the excellent and visionary work being executed by our team. Currently, we see our core DDIC business benefiting from a combination of market share gains, China's panel manufacturing capacity expansion, new customer acquisitions, and existing customer restocking. Looking into the future, our AR/VR sales can meaningfully grow our revenues and profits. We expect operating expenses will be a minimal increase for such additional sales.”
About Himax Technologies, Inc.
Himax Technologies, Inc. (HIMX) is a fabless semiconductor solution provider dedicated to display imaging processing technologies. Himax is a worldwide market leader in display driver ICs and timing controllers used in TVs, laptops, monitors, mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, car navigation, and many other consumer electronics devices. Additionally, Himax designs and provides controllers for touch sensor displays, LCOS micro-displays used in palm-size projectors and head-mounted displays, LED driver ICs, power management ICs, scaler products for monitors and projectors, tailor-made video processing IC solutions and silicon IPs. The company also offers digital camera solutions, including CMOS image sensors and wafer level optics, which are used in a wide variety of applications such as mobile phone, tablet, laptop, TV, PC camera, automobile, security and medical devices. Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Tainan, Taiwan, Himax currently employs around 1,900 people from three Taiwan-based offices in Tainan, Hsinchu and Taipei and country offices in China, Korea, Japan and the US. Himax has 2,764 patents granted and 566 patents pending approval worldwide as of December 31, 2015. Himax has retained its position as the leading display imaging processing semiconductor solution provider to consumer electronics brands worldwide.
Forward Looking Statements
Factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially include, but not limited to, general business and economic conditions and the state of the semiconductor industry; market acceptance and competitiveness of the driver and non-driver products developed by the Company; demand for end-use applications products; reliance on a small group of principal customers; the uncertainty of continued success in technological innovations; our ability to develop and protect our intellectual property; pricing pressures including declines in average selling prices; changes in customer order patterns; changes in estimated full-year effective tax rate; shortages in supply of key components; changes in environmental laws and regulations; exchange rate fluctuations; regulatory approvals for further investments in our subsidiaries; our ability to collect accounts receivable and manage inventory and other risks described from time to time in the Company's SEC filings, including those risks identified in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in its Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2014 filed with the SEC, as may be amended.
Company Contacts: Jackie Chang, CFO Himax Technologies, Inc. Tel: +886-2-2370-3999 Ext.22300 Or US Tel: +1-949-585-9838 Ext.252 Fax: +886-2-2314-0877 Email: jackie_chang@himax.com.tw www.himax.com.tw Nadiya Chen, Investor Relations Himax Technologies, Inc. Tel: +886-2-2370-3999 Ext. 22513 Fax: +886-2-2314-0877 Email: nadiya_chen@himax.com.tw www.himax.com.tw Penny Lin, Investor Relations Himax Technologies, Inc. Tel: +886-2-2370-3999 Ext.22320 Fax: +886-2-2314-0877 Email: penny_lin@himax.com.tw www.himax.com.tw Investor Relations - US Representative Lamnia International, LLC. John Mattio, CEO Tel: +1-203-885-1058 Email: jmattio@lamniaintl.com www.lamniaintl.com
