Color filter supplier Toppan Printing has agreed to buy DuPont Photomasks for a sum of US$650 million. The acquisition will create the industry's largest photomask maker, with a network spanning China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and the US. This development has been said to pose a threat to rival Dai Nippon.

 

The transaction is still subject to both regulatory and DuPont Photomask shareholder approval. Expected to close in early 2005, the deal will render DuPont Photomask a wholly owned unit of Toppan, and will be named Toppan Photomasks. The unit, which currently employs 1,600, will remain headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. For the fiscal year ended June 2004, DuPont Photomask generated revenue of US$354 million.