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December 19 2008:
Panasonic Corporation and SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. announced that they have entered into the Capital and Business Alliance Agreement. Panasonic will aim to acquire the majority of the voting rights of SANYO assuming full dilution (which takes into account conversion of Class A preferred stock
and Class B preferred stock into common stock) by means of a public tender offer bid.
Panasonic and SANYO will form a close alliance in business with the prospect of
organizational restructurings of both companies.
Panasonic will commence the tender offer as soon as is practical, subject to, among other conditions, completion of the procedures and the measures that are necessary under domestic and overseas competition laws and regulations. It is expected to take a certain amount of time for the procedures of the regulatory authorities to be completed. Therefore, no later than around the end of February next year, the progress up to that time will be disclosed.December 18 2008:
Intersil Corporation announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Zilker Labs, Inc., a privately-held, fabless semiconductor company with technology leadership in high efficiency digital power integrated circuits.
Zilker Labs' patented Digital-DC™ technology is an innovative mixed-signal power conversion and management architecture that combines an efficient digital loop synchronous switching regulator, adaptive MOSFET drivers and a digital control interface into one IC. This unique approach provides superior efficiency, flexibility and scalability while decreasing required board space and design complexity through the reduction of discrete components.October 17 2008:
Microchip Technology Inc. has acquired Hampshire Company Inc. for an undisclosed price. Hampshire Company Inc. has used its leading-edge technology and know-how to achieve a leadership position for touch screen controllers.October 17 2008:
Microsemi Corp. has acquired Babcock Inc. for $20 million in cash. Babcock makes power supplies and power conditioning units for satellite, airborne, shipboard, and ground based electronics systems. In addition, Babcock designs aerospace, military, and commercial relays, remote power controllers, contactors, timers, and sensors.October 14 2008:
Bourns, Inc. announced its purchase of substantially all of the assets of the Transient Blocking Unit business of Fultec Semiconductor, Inc.
Fultec Semiconductor's Transient Blocking Unit (TBU) business, headquartered in Mountain View, California, designs and manufactures surge protection components and modules primarily for communications applications. Fultec's TBU products, which are based on a novel and innovative Electronic Current Limiter technology, can be most easily understood as resettable electronic fuses that react extremely quickly to incoming surges and effectively block energy from reaching sensitive and expensive electronic equipment. Fultec's TBU products are sold principally to equipment manufacturers for use in high speed voice and data over broadband applications.
October 14 2008:
Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. announced that it has entered into a
definitive agreement to purchase Mobilygen, a privately held, fabless semiconductor
company with leading technology in H.264 video compression. Completion of the
transaction is subject to customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in
the fourth calendar quarter of 2008.
Maxim's acquisition of Mobilygen brings leading H.264 video compression technology positioning Maxim to become a key supplier to the $2B video security semiconductor market.
Maxim expects the served available market for H.264 compression in IP cameras and DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) to be in excess of $200 million in the Company's 2012 fiscal year.October 13 2008:
Micron Technology Inc., announced that it is expanding its partnership with Nanya Technology Corporation and has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Qimonda AG's 35.6 percent ownership stake in Inotera Memories Inc., a leading Taiwanese DRAM memory manufacturer, for $400 million in cash.September 30 2008:
Intersil Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kenet Inc., a supplier of low-power data converters.September 30 2008:
Avago Technologies announced that it acquired Infineon Technologies AG's bulk acoustic wave (BAW) business.August 25 2008:
Broadcom Corporation and AMD announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement for Broadcom to acquire AMD's digital TV (DTV) business.
In connection with the acquisition, Broadcom will pay approximately $192.8 million in cash in exchange for AMD's DTV assets.
As part of the deal, approximately 530 members of AMD's DTV team and support staff, located in six design centers around the world, will be invited to join Broadcom.
Many of the products from the unit came from AMD's ATI graphics unit.August 22 2008:
TT electronics plc has acquired the majority of the business of Semelab Ltd. (Lutterworth, England). SemeLab designs and produces specialized radio frequency and power semiconductors, optoelectronic components and power microcircuits and modules, primarily for the U.K. and European markets.
The Semelab Group is a privately owned U.K. business established in 1974 and which has three operating companies: Semelab, Semefab (Glenrothes, Scotland) which has a wafer fab and carries out ASIC design and marketing, and Magnatec (Luterworth, England) which is a specialist distributor of power and audio semiconductors. August 05 2008:
Cavium Networks, a provider of semiconductor products that enable intelligent processing for networking, communications, security and wireless applications, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain assets and business of Star Semiconductor Corporation. Star Semiconductor is a Taiwan-based design house in Hsinchu with expertise in building highly integrated ARM-based SOC processors for the broadband, connected home and SOHO market segments. This acquisition will provide Cavium Networks with a highly experienced stand-alone SOC processor team based in Taiwan. The net purchase price of the acquisition will be approximately $9 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2008.August 01 2008:
Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and Simtek Corp., a leading supplier of nonvolatile static random access memory (nvSRAM) integrated circuits, announced that they have reached an agreement whereby Cypress will acquire Simtek in an all cash transaction for $2.60 per share of Simtek common stock, or an aggregate value of approximately $46 million (including the value of Simtek shares held by Cypress).
July 17 2008:
ON Semiconductor Corporation and Catalyst Semiconductor, Inc. announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement providing for the acquisition of Catalyst Semiconductor by ON Semiconductor in an all-stock transaction in which Catalyst shareholders will receive 0.706 shares of ON Semiconductor common stock for each share of Catalyst common stock they own.
Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Catalyst Semiconductor designs and markets analog, mixed-signal and non-volatile memory products, including Digitally Programmable Potentiometers (DPP™), white and color LED drivers, DC/DC converters, LDO regulators, voltage supervisors, bus expanders, serial and parallel EEPROMs, Flash and NVRAM.July 15 2008:
Microsemi Corporation, a manufacturer of high performance analog mixed signal integrated circuits and high reliability semiconductors, announced its acquisition of substantially all of the assets of SEMICOA.
Founded in 1968, SEMICOA is a provider of semiconductors and smart munitions optoelectronics for the high reliability military, commercial aerospace and satellite markets and is a leading competitor in the small signal high reliability transistor markets as evidenced by its long list of DSCC qualifications. Total consideration for SEMICOA was approximately $25 million in cash.
July 10 2008:
Impinj, Inc. today announced the acquisition of Intel Corporation's RFID operation, a business created by Intel's New Business Initiatives (NBI) incubator and which developed the award-winning R1000 RFID reader chip. Financial terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed.
The acquisition of Intel assets further enhances Impinj's position in the RFID market by adding a proven, high-performance, highly integrated reader radio chip to the Impinj family of UHF Gen 2 RFID products. For developers of UHF RFID readers and reader-modules, the R1000 chip provides superior levels of design flexibility, integrating onto a single chip 90 percent of the components required for a reader radio. By delivering unprecedented performance, integration and cost effectiveness to a worldwide customer base, the R1000 chip enables all reader form factors - fixed, mobile, embedded and others - in applications across numerous vertical markets, including supply chain management, asset tracking, authentication and access control.
July 09 2008:
TranSwitch® Corporation announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Centillium Communications, Inc. With this acquisition, TranSwitch, a provider of carrier-class semiconductor solutions for EoS (Ethernet over SONET/SDH), Broadband Access and Carrier Ethernet applications, will further diversify its product portfolio to include rapidly growing Fiber-to-the-Home ('FTTH') and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol ('VoIP') solutions.July 08 2008:
Conexant Systems Inc. announced that it signed a definitive agreement with Freescale
Semiconductor to acquire its 'SigmaTel' multi-function printer (MFP) imaging product
lines. The single-chip solutions were developed by SigmaTel Inc., which was a leading
provider of broad-based MFP imaging solutions prior to its acquisition by Freescale.
Multi-function printers feature copy, fax, and scan capabilities.
Conexant will also acquire Freescale's SigmaTel digital photo frame product
lines, which allow users to view and share photos from traditional digital cameras,
camera phones, and photo-sharing Web sites on high-resolution LCD displays.
SigmaTel's multimedia applications processor technology will be excluded from the
acquisition.
More than 50 Freescale employees, primarily based in Waltham, Massachusetts,
are expected to join Conexant's Imaging and PC Media (IPM) group when the
transaction closes.
Conexant is currently the No.1 provider of semiconductor solutions for facsimile
applications. When the transaction is completed, the company's comprehensive imaging
product offering will include fax system-on-chip (SoC) and datapump solutions, highly
integrated MFP SoCs for inkjet, laser, and photo printers, and high-performance system
solutions for digital photo frames.July 02 2008:
Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co. Ltd. [DNS] acquired Silicon Light Machines [SLM] from Cypress Semiconductor.
Founded in 1994, Silicon Light Machines (formerly Echelle, Inc.) develops and markets products based on a unique optical MEMS known as Grating Light Valve™ (GLV™) technology. The company was acquired by Cypress Semiconductors in 2000. As a subsidiary company, Silicon Light Machines is located in the Cypress Semiconductors main campus in San Jose, California.
June 30 2008:
Virage Logic Corp. has acquired Impinj Inc.'s logic non-volatile memory (NVM) IP business for $5.2 million. Virage Logic has hired approximately 30 former Impinj employees who were responsible for that company's IP business. Impinj will now mainly focus on its RFID products.
June 24 2008:
Silicon Laboratories Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Integration Associates Inc. for $80 million.
The acquisition augments Silicon Labs' investments in short range wireless, a market that includes home automation, remote keyless entry and automated meter reading applications. Integration Associates' products will also accelerate Silicon Labs' expansion into the audio subsystem market.
June 09 2008:
Freescale Semiconductor announced that it has joined with several prominent venture capital firms to form an independent company focused on MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory). The new company, EverSpin Technologies, Inc., will continue to deliver and expand its current portfolio of standalone MRAM and related magnetic-based products. Freescale will transfer the MRAM technology, related intellectual property and products to EverSpin Technologies and will retain an equity position in the new venture. Freescale will continue to develop embedded products based on EverSpin's MRAM technology. EverSpin is backed by venture firms New Venture Partners, Sigma Partners, Lux Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Epic Ventures.June 05 2008:
Zoran Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire France's Let It Wave, a fabless semiconductor company, for $27.6 million in cash. Let It Wave (Paris) develops technology for video frame rate conversion and image enhancement for flat panel televisions and other consumer electronics products.
May 29 2008:
Rohm Co., Ltd. and Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. announced that the two companies have reached a basic understanding of OKI spinning-off its semiconductor business through a company split, and transfer 95% of its issued shares to ROHM. The two companies will sign a definitive agreement based on the premise of OKI gaining approval of spinning-off the semiconductor business at its annual shareholder meeting.
ROHM was established in Kyoto Japan in 1958 and designs, manufactures and sells various types of semiconductors in consumer electronics, mobile phone and network industries and other applications.
Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. OKI provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its info-telecom system business, semiconductor business and printer business.May 19 2008:
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. and Jazz Technologies, Inc. announced the signing of a definitive agreement by which Tower will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Jazz in a stock-for-stock transaction valuing Jazz at a fully diluted equity value of approximately $40 million. Under the terms of the agreement, each outstanding share of Jazz common stock will be converted into the right to receive 1.8 Tower ordinary shares. The total value of the transaction, including net debt, is approximately $169 million. May 07 2008:
CopperGate Communications announced the purchase of the HomePlug AV business from Conexant Systems, Inc. CopperGate is now the first semiconductor company with home networking technologies supporting all three wire types - coax, phone and power lines.
CopperGate acquired the HomePlug AV business from Conexant including all relevant power line technology and silicon products, related patents, appropriate licenses, and requisite personnel. Former Conexant employees will become part of the CopperGate team and will expand the company's R&D initiatives in Southern California.April 29 2008:
China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) has reached an agreement with its foundry customers to exit the commodity DRAM business. SMIC makes DRAMs on a foundry basis for Germany's Qimonda AG. SMIC (Shanghai) will convert its DRAM production into logic throughout 2008.April 29 2008:
NXP Semiconductors will acquire Conexant Systems Inc.'s set-top box business. The combined operations will create a top three player in digital video systems with the scale to establish a strong leadership position. The deal represents NXP's fourth acquisition since independence and is the first for its Home Business Unit.April 29 2008:
EPCOS has acquired the activities of NXP Semiconductors Netherlands B.V. in the area of RF-MEMS (radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical systems). RF-MEMS are tiny mechanical elements that can be controlled and operated electronically. They will help to reduce the power consumption of mobile phones by up to 25 percent and improve the stability of their radio circuits. EPCOS is world market leader in RF filters. With RF-MEMS, the company is extending its portfolio of RF products.April 29 2008:
NXP Semiconductors Netherlands B.V. and STMicroelectronics announced their agreement to combine key wireless operations to form a joint-venture company with strong relationships with all major handset manufacturers. The new company will have the scale to better meet customer needs in 2G, 2.5G, 3G, multimedia, connectivity and all future wireless technologies. The combined venture will be created from successful businesses that together generated $3B in revenue in 2007 and will own thousands of important communication and multimedia patents. The new company will be a solid top-three industry player and among the few companies with the scale and expertise to pursue the R&D investments necessary to establish itself as a leading player in the wireless and mobile-multimedia market.
The new company will be incorporated in the Netherlands and headquartered in Switzerland with approximately 9,000 employees worldwide.April 29 2008:
Lite-On Technology has announced that it will sell its Digital Display business unit to Wistron Corporation, with the transaction expected to complete in the third quarter of 2008.April 29 2008:
Infineon Technologies has acquired one hundred percent of Primarion Inc. Primarion is among the leaders in designing, manufacturing and marketing digital power ICs for computing, graphics and communication applications. Primarion is a fabless company, headquartered in Torrance, California.
April 24 2008:
Apple Computer Inc. has acquired PA Semi Inc., a supplier of embedded microprocessors, for $278 million in cash. Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., P.A. Semi was established in 2003 by industry veterans to develop a high-performance, low-power processor family. P.A. Semi is headed by Dan Dobberpuhl, the acclaimed lead designer of the DEC Alpha series of microprocessors, the StrongARM microprocessor.April 21 2008:
Micron Technology, Inc. and Nanya Technology Corporation announced that the two companies have signed an agreement to create MeiYa Technology Corporation, a new DRAM joint venture. Both parent companies will own 50 percent of the joint venture initially, and each will contribute USD $550 million in cash by the end of 2009.April 10 2008:
NXP and STMicroelectronics will combine their wireless operations to form a joint venture company. ST will own 80 percent of the venture; NXP gets the other 20 percent along with $1.55 billion in cash from ST. The venture will be created from businesses that together generated $3 billion in revenue in 2007 and will own thousands of communication and multimedia patents. It is set to be one of the top three semiconductor companies in the wireless industry. The joint venture intends to address UMTS, TD-SCDMA, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, FM Radio, USB, and UWB standards. It will also integrate the Silicon Laboratories' wireless and GloNav's GPS operations recently acquired by NXP. The company will be incorporated in the Netherlands and headquartered in Switzerland.April 07 2008:
Icera Inc., the leader in software defined wireless modem chipsets, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to merge with Sirific Wireless, a fabless semiconductor company specializing in advanced CMOS RF transceivers. This will enable Icera to deliver a complete chipset solution for the mobile broadband market. The merged companies will use the Icera name.April 06 2008:
Entropic Communications, Inc., a provider of silicon solutions to enable connected home entertainment, has acquired substantially all of the assets of Vativ Technologies, Inc., a San Diego-based, privately-held fabless semiconductor company specializing in innovative high-bandwidth, advanced digital signal processing solutions.April 05 2008:
Diodes Inc., designing application-specific standard products for discrete and analog semiconductor markets, is acquiring Zetex PLC, a designer and manufacturer of high performance discrete and analog semiconductor solutions for a broad range of applications, including power management, drivers for LEDs, high performance digital audio solutions and control circuits for broadcasting over satellites.March 20 2008:
Synopsys, Inc., a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design and manufacturing, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Synplicity®, Inc., a leading supplier of innovative field programmable gate array (FPGA) and IC design and verification solutions that serve a wide range of communications, military/aerospace, semiconductor, consumer, computer, and other electronic applications markets.March 18 2008:
Global Mixed-mode Technology (GMT) aquired Aimtron Technology. Founded in 1996, GMT creates analog ic design dedicated power solutions for Note Book PC, Server, Workstation and 3C consumer products including mobile phones, networking, LCD monitors and PDAs.
Aimtron Technology is specializing in mixed analog and digital IC design. Its current product lines include video ICs, motor driver ICs, and power management ICs.March 10 2008:
Infineon Technologies AG entered into a definitive agreement, under which LSI Corporation will acquire Infineon's hard disk drive (HDD) business.
Under the terms of the agreement, LSI will purchase the Infineon HDD business, which designs, manufactures and markets semiconductors for HDD devices. Infineon will transfer its complete HDD activities, including customer relations as well as know-how and will grant an IP license. Also included in the transaction is a design service agreement. The transaction does not comprise significant assets and transfer of employees.March 10 2008:
TriQuint Semiconductor, a leading RF supplier to the wireless communications industry and WJ Communications, Inc., announced a definitive agreement for TriQuint to acquire WJ. WJ is a leading supplier of radio frequency (RF) solutions for wireless infrastructure and will expand TriQuint's reach into this market.March 05 2008:
BOE HYDIS , a Korean based TFT-LCD manufacturer, recently named Taiwan-based Prime View Consortium as the preferred bidder for the corporate sell out.
Prime View Consortium consists of Taiwan-based TFT-LCD manufacturer Prime View International, and Hong-Kong-based ALCO Holdings and Varitronix International. Prime View International holds 78 percent of the Consortium's equity, while ALCO Holdings and Varitronix International hold 11 percent each.
Prime View International Co., Ltd. is a TFT-LCD manufacturer headquartered in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
ALCO Holdings Ltd. is a AV equipment manufacturer headquartered in Hong Kong with production facility in China.
Varitronix International Ltd. is a LCD manufacturer headquartered in Hong Kong with production facility in China.
February 07 2008:
Atmel Corporation announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Quantum Research Group Ltd., an independent developer of capacitive sensing IP and solutions for user interfaces. The acquisition of Quantum provides Atmel with an immediate presence in touch sensing, one of the fastest growing markets for microcontrollers.February 07 2008:
Power Integrations announced that it has acquired Potentia Semiconductor, a developer of controller chips for high-power AC-DC power supplies. Potentia's engineering team, based in Ottawa, Canada, will form the core of a new analog design group for Power Integrations focused primarily on high-power applications.January 15 2008:
eSilicon Corporation announced that it has acquired the existing product lines and certain assets of SwitchCore AB, a provider of high-performance Ethernet network switching chips. As a result of the asset acquisition, eSilicon will assume responsibility for manufacturing SwitchCore's existing product lines, providing SwitchCore's customers with an uninterrupted supply of devices.January 10 2008:
Microsemi Corp. has acquired substantially all of the assets of T.S.I. Microelectronics Corp. (TSI Microelectronics). Total consideration for TSI Microelectronics was $2 million in cash, which includes the company's cash position of approximately $0.6 million.
TSI Microelectronics was founded in 1974 to provide the U.S. Department of Defense and its OEM contractors with a source for custom hybrids and other special products used in mature, long-life defense and aerospace programs.January 03 2008:
Leadis Technology Inc. has acquired Acutechnology Semiconductor Inc., a privately-held analog semiconductor company specializing in power management technologies for $5 million in cash.-
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