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December 29. 2003:
Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. acquired communications IC maker Cicada Semiconductor for approximately $66 million in cash. Cicada, a supplier of transceivers for 10/100/1000-megabit-per-second applications, will reduce its workforce to approximately 40 employees when the transaction is completed. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is anticipated to be completed in the first quarter of 2004.
December 19. 2003:
STMicroelectronics announced the acquisition of the wireless-LAN developer Synad Technologies Ltd. Synad is a fast-growing UK startup that has rapidly revealed itself as one of the most successful WLAN fabless companies and one of the few able to deliver a full dual-band multi-standard solution. Synad has a proven multimode full CMOS production-ready chipset and reference design, and powerful software suites for both wireless-LAN access point and client applications.
November 06. 2003:
Conexant Systems Inc. and GlobespanVirata Inc. announced the signing of a definitive agreement to combine the two companies in a strategic merger. The combined company will possess the world's most complete and most advanced portfolio of semiconductor solutions targeting the broadband digital home.
November 06. 2003:
Veeco Instruments Inc. announced that it has purchased Emcore Corporation's TurboDisc(R) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) business. Combined with Veeco's molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) business, the acquisition makes Veeco the only company that provides both key compound semiconductor epitaxial deposition technologies. The ability to provide complementary MBE and MOCVD technologies will enable Veeco to address the full range of applications requiring the high performance aspects of compound semiconductor technologies, including lower power, higher frequency operation, and light-emitting characteristics. MOCVD tools are particularly well-suited for the critical first step in the growth of high speed electronic, wireless and optoelectronic compound semiconductor materials employed in advanced wireless telecommunications and rapidly growing high brightness light-emitting diode (LED) lighting applications.
October 01. 2003:
All AC and PAC products (formerly Philips / BCcomponents) produced by Phoenix.
Phoenix Passive Components supplies conventional resistors from its highly competent manufacturing unit in South America. The manufacturing unit is located in Brasil and Phoenix has originated from a management buy-out. It started on the 1st of January 2000 with effectively 600 employees, leaving the Philips Components division after a process of strategic repositioning within the Dutch multinational. The factory started in Brasil during the 1950's and was relocated to Recife at the end of the 1990's. Being completely autonomous the factory posseses all the required support departments including a state-of-the-art Quality Laboratory. The Development department always has been the centre of competence for conventional resistors within Philips, and today with this high degree of technical competence Phoenix has expanded this capability of developing new products and technologies as well as providing excellent application support. At the beginning of 2003 when each company decided to go its own way, all AC and PAC
products were exclusively produced by Phoenix as all the production capacity for these products was (and still is) located at the Phoenix factory in Recife (Brazil).September 26. 2003:
Silicon Laboratories Inc. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Austin-based Cygnal Integrated Products, Inc., an innovator in analog-intensive, highly integrated 8-bit microcontrollers (MCUs). Cygnal's portfolio of over 50 general-purpose products will add breadth and diversity to Silicon Laboratories' existing product line of high-performance, application-specific mixed-signal ICs the company says.August 26. 2003:
Agere Systems Inc. announced it has acquired Massana Ltd., based in Dublin, Ireland, and a developer of Gigabit Ethernet-over-copper physical layer device technologies, for $26 million in stock.August 25. 2003:
Avanex Corporation announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire certain assets of Vitesse Semiconductor Corp.'s optical systems unit in San Jose, Calif. for about $6 million.
Under the terms, optical-device maker Avanex will acquire substantially all of the assets of Vitesse's Optical Systems Division in exchange for approximately 1.2 million shares of Avanex common stock. The acquisition of this business will enhance Avanex Corporations already strong presence in transponders and expand their customer traction in subsystem products.August 05. 2003:
Nvidia Corp. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire chip maker MediaQ Inc.. for $70 million in cash. MediaQ is a provider of graphics and multimedia technology for wireless mobile devices. Its customers include leading handset and PDA manufacturers, such as Mitsubishi, Siemens, DBTel, Dell, HP, Palm, Philips, Sharp, and Sony.July 30. 2003:
Texas Instruments Incorporated announced that it has acquired Radia Communications Inc. Based in Sunnyvale, California, Radia is a fabless semiconductor company specializing in the development of radio frequency (RF) semiconductor, subsystem, signal processing and networking technologies for 802.11 wireless local area networking (WLAN) multi-band/multi-mode radios. July 18. 2003:
GlobespanVirata Inc. - a supplier of communications chips applications - announced that it has agreed to purchase the wireless local-area networking product group of Intersil Corp. The deal is worth for $365 million in cash and common stock. This transaction is expected to close prior to the end of the third quarter of 2003, subject to customary closing conditions. Intersil's Wireless Networking Product Group designs and develops silicon technology for wireless networking applications. Worldwide WLAN semiconductor sales are expected to grow at a 23% compound annual growth rate from 2002 to 2006.July 9. 2003:
Intel Corp. has bought Vancouver-based West Bay Semiconductor Inc. for cash. West Bay, a 1999 spin-off from PMC-Sierra Inc., was working on networking chips that enable voice and data transport over SONET/SDH networks. West Bay Semiconductor's product line includes transport framers and data mappers.July 9. 2003:
Pericom Semiconductor Corp. has acquired SaRonix LLC. SaRonix and Pericom are developing joint marketing and product initiatives for crystal-based products including clock recovery, frequency translator and timing modules. SaRonix's frequency control products are electronic components used as time and frequency clocks in electronic products ranging from computers, network switching, and communications equipment.July 8. 2003:
CML Microsystems Plc [CML], which designs, manufactures and markets a broad range of semiconductor products, primarily for the global communications markets, announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire 98.86% of Hyperstone AG for a total consideration of Euro 7.5 million. Hyperstone, a fabless semiconductor company founded in 1990, is headquartered in Konstanz, Germany with a branch in Taipei, Taiwan. About half its staff is located in Taiwan. Hyperstone will continue to trade under its established name and management structure, but the companies will work closely to develop SoC platforms for applications in the communications sector. CML said it is looking to incorporate Hyperstone's low power DSP technology into several new product lines.June 10. 2003:
Consumer-chip maker ESS Technology, Inc. acquired Pictos Technologies Inc. for $27 million in cash. Pictos Technologies Inc. was formed during 2002, when Conexant Systems Inc. spun off its digital imaging semiconductor business and merged it with image-software supplier Zing Networks Inc.June 06. 2003:
AXA Private Equity, one of the market leaders for investment in unlisted companies, has signed an agreement with FCI, Areva group's connector subsidiary, for the share purchase of the MAI (Military/Aeronautics and Industrial) Division. The new company is to be named Souriau. May 08. 2003:
PLX Technology Inc. has agreed to acquire HiNT Corp. , a privately held, fabless semiconductor supplier of Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) and PCI-X bridge chips in a deal valued at between $12.7 million and $15 million.May 05. 2003:
Zoran Corp. a developer of digital consumer chips will acquire Oak Technology Inc. for about $358 million, including $100 million in cash, the companies said. Following completion of the transaction, Zoran stockholders would own two-thirds of the combined company while Oak shareholders retain the rest. The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2003.April 03. 2003:
Oak Technology Inc. has completed the sale of its optical storage business to Sunplus Technology Co., a Taiwan-based chip maker. The transaction, which closed on April 3, includes the transfer of Oak's optical storage business and certain assets to Sunplus for approximately $30 million, which includes $16 million in cash and the equivalent of $14 million in shares of Sunplus common stock. Oak will also become a minority investor in Sunext Technology Co., Ltd., a new spin-off company created by Sunplus and Oak.
April 03. 2003:
Anadigics has purchased the wireless LAN power amplifier product line from RF Solutions Inc. for $2.8 million up front, with a contingency clause for 3.0 million common Anadigics shares, based upon 12-month performance. The deal gives Anadigics a much-desired stake in the WLAN market.March 07. 2003:
As mentioned on October 07. 2002 Hitachi and Mitsubishi are merging their Semiconductor operations into a new organisation called Renesas Technology Corp. It will commence official operation from 01 April 2003. When Renesas Technology Corp. is launched on April 1, 2003, the new company will instantly be the industry's largest microcontroller (MCU) supplier -- #1 in the world -- by acquiring the combined resources, strengths and momentum of Hitachi, Ltd. and the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. The merger excludes DRAM memories. The Renesas Web site -- http://www.renesas.com -- will go live on April 1, 2003. For a limited time, the former URLs will automatically jump to the Renesas Web site.March 07. 2003:
Germany's Infineon Technologies AG announced that its U.S. subsidiary, Infineon Technologies North America Corp., has acquired the assets of Morphics Technology Inc. Founded in 1998, Morphics Technology Inc. is a privately held fabless semiconductor company with 30 employees. Its technology enables programmable, multi-standard platforms for 3G and wireless local area networking (WLAN) systems.February 19. 2003:
SiRF Technology Inc. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Enuvis Inc., a developer of wireless location technology. The acquisition will complement SiRF's chip technology for global positioning system (GPS) applications. Specifically, SiRF will integrate Enuvis' UrbanGPS Assisted-GPS technology into its SiRFLoc Multimode location platform. The combination will enable OEMs to acquire GPS signals and deliver high accuracy location calculations inside buildings and dense metropolitan areas where other GPS technologies fail.February 12. 2003:
Entegris Inc. and Asyst Technologies Inc. announced that Entegris has purchased Asyst's silicon wafer and reticle carrier product lines. This transaction is designed to provide both companies with the opportunity to leverage their core competencies and accelerate new product development within the semiconductor industry. Under terms of the agreement, Entegris will pay $38.75 million for all assets associated with Asyst's wafer and reticle carrier product lines and intellectual property. Entegris intends to hire key Asyst employees involved with these product lines.February 03. 2003:
Agilent Technologies Inc. acquired the intellectual property and certain assets of Pixel Devices International Inc. (PDI), a developer of CMOS image sensor technology. The deal expands Agilent's efforts in the CMOS image sensor business. PDI develops low-noise CMOS image sensors for industrial and biomedical systems. Agilent, one of the leaders in CMOS sensors, has shipped over 100 million devices for optical mice and PC cameras. Agilent is currently developing miniature camera modules to be embedded in wireless handsets.January 22. 2003:
Agere Systems Inc. has sold the remainder of its optoelectronics components business to Emcore Corporation for $25 million in cash. Involved are Agere's West Coast optoelectronics business, which consists primarily of the assets, personnel and operations of the former Ortel Corp., including facilities in Alhambra, Calif. and Irwindale, Calif. Lucent Technologies had acquired Ortel in April 2000, prior to the spin-out of Agere from Lucent. Agere Systems subsequently sold a portion of that business to TriQuint Semiconductor Inc.. The group will operate as Ortel, a division of Emcore.January 22. 2003:
SRC Devices, Inc. has acquired the reed relay and gas tube business unit from Clare Inc. SRC Devices (SRC), founded in August 2001, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumida Corporation of Japan. With the recent purchase of the reed relay and reed switch division of Clare, Inc., SRC Devices now launched their company brand, the new website and sales organizations in North America, Europe and Asia. SRC Devices, Inc. will be headquartered in San Diego, CA and will operate the reed switch facility in St. Louis along with the reed relay and gas discharge tube facility in Guadalajara, Mexico.January 17. 2003:
STMicroelectronics plans to acquire the assets of Tioga Technologies Ltd., a developer of DSL technology, for about $12.0 million. The announcement was made along with Tioga's results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2002. After a year of support from STMicroelectronics the chip giant is taking up an option to buy the assets of Tioga written into the deal. The companies expect to complete the deal at the beginning of the second quarter of 2003, the closing date being April 15, 2003.-
Archived News Pages:
Business News 2002
Business News 2001
Business News 2000
Sorry, because of a major crash we lost the News Files from July 21 2005 until February 1 2007. We couldn't recover the datafiles.
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