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November 06 2012:
Imagination Technologies Group plc, a multimedia, communications and embedded processor technology company, has signed an agreement to acquire the operating business and certain patent properties, as well as license rights to all of the remaining patent properties, of MIPS Technologies, Inc. (MIPS), a provider of CPU (central processing unit) processor architectures and cores, for a cash consideration of US$60 million.
In addition to the operating business of MIPS, Imagination's purchase includes ownership of 82 key patent properties (the "Retained Patent Properties") that are directly relevant to the MIPS® architecture, and comprehensive license rights to all of the remaining 498 MIPS' patent properties (the "Divested Patent Properties"). In a separate transaction, the Divested Patent Properties are being sold to Bridge Crossing LLC, by MIPS for US$350 million.
Update: Bridge Crossing LLC describes a consortium led by ARM and the Allied Security Trust, whose members include Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Intel.October 01 2012:
Adesto Technologies Corporation Inc., a developer non-volatile memory, has acquired Atmel's Serial Flash product families, including the company's AT45xxx DataFlash® and AT25xxx BIOS Flash product lines and associated patents. The acquisition also includes IP licensing to cover support of the products and future product development.September 19 2012:
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation and Ramtron International Corporation have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Cypress will acquire all outstanding stock of Ramtron at a price of $3.10 per share in cash. The transaction, valued at approximately $109.8 million (excluding assumed debt and options and including shares previously acquired by Cypress), represents a premium of 71% to Ramtron's closing price of $1.81 per share on June 11, 2012, the day before Cypress publicly disclosed its offer for Ramtron. The Boards of Directors of both Cypress and Ramtron have approved the transaction. Ramtron's Board of Directors unanimously recommends that Ramtron stockholders tender their shares in Cypress's increased tender offer.August 23 2012:
Qualcomm Incorporated announced it has acquired DesignArt Networks Ltd., a leader in small cell modem and system design for cellular base stations and high-speed wireless backhaul infrastructure. Based in Ra'anana, Israel, DesignArt offers system-on-chip (SoC) and software products that enable the design of indoor and outdoor small cell base stations and remote radio heads, which allow operators to expand the data capacity of their networks in a simple and cost-effective manner. DesignArt's technology also offers integrated line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight wireless backhaul to reduce the cost of outdoor small cell deployments.August 10 2012:
EPISTAR Corporation announced it will completely take over subsidiary Huga Optotech through a share swap in which one Epistar share will be exchanged for 4.85 Huga shares. The merger will take effect on December 28, 2012.
The deal will expand Epistar's registered capital to NT$9.1 billion (US$303.3 million) from NT$8.6 billion currently. Epistar holds a 50.85% share in Huga at present.
Currently Huga has a production capacity of 150'000 units of 2-inch equivalent epitaxial wafers a month, and the company is currently running at 70% of its capacity. Meanwhile, Epistar has a capacity of 330'000-340'000 epitaxial wafers.
August 06 2012:
STMicroelectronics, announced that it has taken an important additional step in its positioning in the emerging video-sharing market for smartphones and other portable consumer devices. Following a successful joint development effort with start-up bTendo Ltd., ST has acquired the intellectual property and has hired most of the staff of the Israeli company to accelerate the propagation of the technology. ST did not disclose how much it has paid for the bTendo assets.August 03 2012:
E Ink Holdings (Taiwan) announced it has signed a definitive agreement to buy 82.7 percent of shares of SiPix Technology, a provider of electrophoretic technologies. After customary regulatory approvals, the final closing is likely to be during Q4, 2012.July 30 2012:
Apple Inc. has signed a merger agreement to acquire AuthenTec Inc. for about $356 million. AuthenTec is a provider of fingerprint ICs, sensors and software for security. In 2010, AuthenTec acquired rival Upek Inc., creating the world’s largest provider of fingerprint sensors and identity management software.July 19 2012:
Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. (ISSI) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with the major shareholders of Chingis Technology Corporation under which ISSI intends to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Chingis pursuant to a cash tender offer valued at $33 million, or $16 million net of the approximately $17 million in cash expected to be on Chingis' balance sheet at closing. The transaction is expected to close in September 2012. Completion of the transaction is conditioned on at least 60% of the Chingis shares being tendered, regulatory approvals in Taiwan and other customary closing conditions.
Founded in 1995, Chingis provides a variety of NOR flash memory technologies used in standalone and embedded applications with more than 80 worldwide patents and patents pending. The company has 75 employees in Taiwan, Korea, China and the United States and its stock trades on the Emerging Stock Market in Taiwan. For the year ended December 31, 2011, Chingis reported annual revenue of $39.6 million and net income of $2.6 million.July 19 2012:
Integrated Device Technology, Inc. announced that it has acquired NXP's high-speed data converter assets and Alvand Technologies, a analog IP company specializing in data converters. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.July 17 2012:
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced it will buy CSR (Cambridge Silicon Radio) plc's handset connectivity and location operations and the associated technology. Samsung agreed to pay $310 million for the mobile business unit. Samsung also announced to invest an additional $34.4 million to take a 4.9 percent stake in CSR.July 03 2012:
Toumaz Limited, a provider of ultra-low power, high-performance wireless communications technologies and solutions, has agreed to acquire Frontier Silicon (Holdings) Limited, a supplier of semiconductor, module and software solutions for digital radio and connected audio systems, for a maximum consideration of up to £32.3m.July 02 2012:
Micron Technology, Inc. and Elpida Memory, Inc.'s trustees announced that the parties have signed a definitive sponsor agreement for Micron to acquire and support Elpida. The agreement has been entered into in connection with Elpida's corporate reorganization proceedings conducted under the jurisdiction of the Tokyo District Court.
Under the agreement, 200 billion Yen (approximately USD $2.5 billion assuming 80 Yen/USD) total consideration, less certain reorganization proceeding expenses, will be used to satisfy the reorganization claims of Elpida's secured and unsecured creditors. Micron will acquire 100 percent of the equity of Elpida for 60 billion Yen (approximately USD $750 million) to be paid in cash at closing. In addition, 140 billion Yen (approximately USD $1.75 billion) in future annual installment payments through 2019 will be paid from cash flow generated from Micron's payment for foundry services provided by Elpida, as a Micron subsidiary. As a result of these payments, all pre-petition debt obligations of Elpida will be fully discharged under the corporate reorganization proceedings. The agreement also calls for Micron to provide certain financing support for Elpida capital expenditures, subject to specified conditions, and to maintain Elpida's operations and employees.
In a related transaction, Micron also announced a separate agreement with Powerchip Technology Corporation, a Taiwanese corporation, and certain of its affiliates to acquire the Powerchip group's 24 percent share of Rexchip Electronics Corporation for approximately 10 billion NTD (approximately USD $334 million assuming 30 NTD/USD).
Elpida's assets include a 300 millimeter (mm) DRAM fabrication facility located in Hiroshima, Japan; an approximate 65 percent ownership interest in Rexchip, whose assets include a 300mm DRAM fabrication facility located in Taiwan; and an assembly and test facility located in Akita, Japan. Together with the Rexchip shares acquired from Powerchip, Micron will control approximately 89 percent of Rexchip's outstanding shares. The fab assets of Elpida and Rexchip together can produce more than 200,000 300mm wafers per month, which would represent an approximate 50 percent increase in Micron's current manufacturing capacity.
June 28 2012:
U-blox AG (Thalwil, Switzerland) has acquired startup LTE chip company Cognovo (Cambridge, England) for US$16.5 million and announced the acquisition of another significant LTE company 4M Wireless Ltd. (Luton, England) for about US$9 million.
Cognovo is engaged in soft-modem chip development.
4M Wireless is a developer of communications protocols based on the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standards.June 20 2012:
SK Hynix Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire California-based storage solution company Link_A_Media Devices Corporation [LAMD]. LAMD, founded in 2004, is a leader in the development of semiconductor system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for the data storage market. These SoC solutions, also called controllers, interface with processors to significantly increase the speed and reliability of Flash memory. Upon completion of the acquisition, LAMD will join SK Hynix as a business unit focused on customized NAND based solutions.June 18 2012:
Qualcomm Incorporated announced that it has acquired Summit Microelectronics, a developer and provider of programmable power integrated circuits based in Sunnyvale, CA. for an undisclosed sum. Qualcomm's power management roadmap will be significantly enhanced with the addition of Summit's expertise and products. As a result of the acquisition, Qualcomm will be able to offer a robust portfolio which will address a broader set of customers and complex design challenges. All employees of Summit Microelectronics have joined Qualcomm's CDMA Technologies division.June 06 2012:
CSR plc (Cambridge Silicon Radio) announced it acquired the Map-X audio product line from bankrupt U.S. chip vendor Trident Microsystems Inc. CSR (London) did not disclose the purchase price. Trident (Sunnyvale, Calif.) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January 2012.June 01 2012:
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced that it has acquired Nanoradio AB, a developer of ultra low power Wireless LAN chipsets for high-speed wireless access in mobile phones.
Headquartered in Kista, Sweden, Nanoradio has approximately 60 employees and extensive experience in the wireless industry. In particular, Nanoradio specializes in developing small form factor high performance Wi-Fi chipsets with low power consumption for cellular platforms.May 21 2012:
Silicon Laboratories Inc., a designer of analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Boston-based Ember Corporation for initial consideration of $72 million, subject to an adjustment for certain working capital amounts and potential earn-out consideration. Ember is a late-stage private company offering market-leading silicon, software and development tools for 2.4 GHz wireless mesh networking solutions being deployed in smart energy, connected home, security, lighting, and many other monitoring and control applications. Ember is a pioneer in the market for 802.15.4 ZigBee® solutions.May 02 2012:
Microchip Technology Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire Standard Microsystems Corporation (SMSC) for $37.00 per share in cash, which represents a total equity value of about $939 million, and a total enterprise value of about $766 million, after excluding SMSC's cash and investments on its balance sheet of approximately $173 million.April 30 2012:
Integrated Device Technology, Inc. announced that it has acquired Fox Electronics, a supplier of frequency control products (FCPs), in an all-cash transaction for approximately $30 million, of which $26 million was paid at closing. Fox Electronics' revenue was approximately $23 million in calendar year 2011, and the company is profitable.April 30 2012:
Integrated Device Technology, Inc. and PLX Technology, Inc. announced that they have signed a definitive agreement pursuant to which IDT will acquire PLX. Under the terms of the agreement, unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, IDT will acquire all of the outstanding shares of PLX common stock pursuant to an exchange offer, followed by a second step merger. In the acquisition, PLX stockholders will receive (i) $3.50 in cash and (ii) 0.525 shares of IDT common stock for each PLX common share outstanding. Based on IDT’s closing stock price on April 27, 2012, the transaction is valued at approximately $7.00 per PLX share and results in a total transaction value of approximately $330 million.April 19 2012:
Microchip Technology Inc. announced the acquisition of Roving Networks Inc. based in Los Gatos, Calif. Roving Networks is a privately held, fabless semiconductor developer of Wi-Fi certified transceivers and FCC certified Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules. The terms of the deal are confidential, and the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive on a non-GAAP basis.April 17 2012:
Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd., one of the world's number one supplier of passive electronic components, announced that Murata Electronics North America, Inc., its full subsidiary has signed a definitive agreement to acquire RF Monolithics, Inc. in an all cash transaction. Targeted to close in the third calendar quarter of 2012, the deal will pay the holders of RFM common shares $1.78 per share.April 17 2012:
Taiwanese solar wafer maker Sino-American Silicon Products Inc. [SAS] announced it had reached an agreement with Covalent Materials Corp. to complete the transfer of the Japanese firm's silicon wafer business to SAS.
The Japanese company's silicon wafer business, Covalent Silicon Corp., is the sixth-largest in the world, with customers in Japan, Taiwan, Europe and the US. Its wafer products are widely used in the semiconductor industry including in items ranging from DRAM, micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) to insulated gate bipolar transistors.April 10 2012:
MediaTek Inc. (Hsinchu, Taiwan) is acquiring Coresonic AB (Linkoping, Sweden), a developer of programmable baseband processor technology targeting wireless and broadcast technologies. MediaTek did not indicate how much it would pay for the company. The move had been approved by its board of directors, Coresonic will become another wholly-owned subsidiary of MediaTek in Europe, a spokesperson said.April 06 2012:
Cephasonics, Inc. announced that it has completed a management buyout of the Samplify Systems, Inc. ultrasound business and assets. The asset purchase agreement includes all ultrasound-related technology and intellectual property; IC, module and system products; and customer, distribution and partner relationships. Assuring seamless operational continuity, the entire expert marketing, sales and development team joins the new company.April 04 2012:
Sigma Designs Inc. said it finalized a deal to acquire Trident Microsystems Inc.'s digital television (DTV) business for $21 million in cash, plus the assumption of some liabilities.April 04 2012:
NXP Semiconductors NV (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) has agreed to buy electronic design house and IP licensor Catena Holding NV and its subsidiaries for an undisclosed sum. NXP said it plans to put Catena's engineers to work on automotive applications.March 26 2012:
Hynix Semiconductor Inc. is changing its name to SK Hynix Inc. This comes after mobile network operator SK Telecom Co. Ltd. completed the acquisition of a 21 percent stake in Hynix for about $3 billion in February.March 12 2012:
Spire Corporation, a diversified global company providing solar photovoltaic equipment and systems, and biomedical processing services, announced that it has completed the sale of substantially all the assets of Spire Semiconductor, LLC’s foundry services business for aggregate consideration of $8.5 million, to Masimo Semiconductor, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Masimo Corporation.March 06 2012:
Vishay Intertechnology Inc. has acquired HiRel Systems LLC for US$85 million.
HiRel, located in Minnetonka, Minn., is a supplier of transformers, inductors, coils and power conversion products, and provides products for custom applications within the medical, military, aerospace and specialty industrial and commercial markets.
Vishay disclosed the acquisition during January 2012.February 07 2012:
Plessey Semiconductors has acquired CamGaN Limited, a University of Cambridge spin-out formed to commercialise novel technologies for the growth of gallium nitride (GaN) high-brightness LEDs on large-area silicon substrates. The acquisition will enable Plessey to exploit synergies with its 6-inch processing facility in Plymouth, England to produce HB LEDs based on CamGaN’s proprietary 6-inch GaN-on-silicon technology. The Company believes this acquisition positions it among the first commercial players to successfully manufacture HB LEDs on 6-inch silicon substrates.
The newly acquired Plessey HB LED solution enables the growth of thin HB LED structures on standard, readily available, silicon substrates. Current technologies use silicon carbide (SiC) or sapphire substrates, which are expensive and difficult to scale-up. Plessey’s GaN-on-silicon solution offers cost reductions of the order of 80% compared to LEDs grown on SiC or sapphire by: (i) reducing scrap rates, (ii) minimising batch time and (iii) enabling the use of automated semiconductor processing equipment. These cost reductions will be achieved while enabling
outputs in excess of 150 lumens per watt later this year – a combination that will allow Plessey to offer the most cost effective solutions in the HB LED industry.February 06 2012:
Rambus Inc. announced it has acquired privately-held Unity Semiconductor, a memory technology company for an aggregate of $35 million in cash. As part of this acquisition, the Unity team members have joined Rambus to continue developing innovations and solutions for next-generation non-volatile memory.January 30 2012:
ABB and Thomas & Betts Corporation announced that both companies' boards of directors have agreed to a transaction in which ABB will acquire Thomas & Betts for $72 per share in cash or approximately $3.9 billion. The acquisition price represents a 24 percent premium to Thomas & Betts' closing stock price on
January 27, 2012 and a 35 percent premium to the volume weighted average stock price over the past 60 trading days. The transaction is subject to approval by Thomas & Betts shareholders as well as to customary regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by the middle of 2012.
The complementary combination of Thomas & Betts' electrical components and ABB's low-voltage protection, control and measurement products would create a broader low voltage portfolio that can be distributed through Thomas & Betts' network of more than 6'000 distributor locations and wholesalers in North America, and through ABB's well established distribution channels in Europe and Asia.January 27 2012:
MagnaChip Semiconductor Corporation announced that its Korean subsidiary has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Dawin Electronics Co. Ltd., a privately held semiconductor company that designs and manufactures Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT), Fast Recovery Diode (FRD) and MOSFET modules. Dawin Electronics is headquartered in Incheon, South Korea, and has sales offices in China and Europe. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.January 25 2012:
Qualcomm Inc. acquired fabless MEMS display startup Pixtronix Inc. Qualcomm confirmed the purchase but did not give any details. It also declined to discuss the price. However, according to rumors, Qualcomm has paid between $175 million and $200 million for the startup.January 23 2012:
Semtech Corporation, a supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, and Gennum Corporation, a supplier of high speed analog and mixed-signal semiconductors for the optical communications and video broadcast markets, announced they have entered into a definitive arrangement agreement for Semtech to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Gennum for a total consideration of approximately CDN$500 million (approximately US$494 million based on the exchange rate on January 20, 2012 of CDN$0.9868 to US $1.00).January 23 2012:
Synopsys, Inc. announced that it has closed the acquisition of ExpertIO, Inc., an independent provider of verification IP (VIP) for industry standard protocols. The addition of ExpertIO's team of protocol experts and its strong portfolio of storage VIP will accelerate Synopsys' delivery of a broad line-up of high-performance, easy-to-use, full-featured VIP that can help designers address their growing verification challenges. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.January 23 2012:
QLogic Corp., a supplier of high performance network infrastructure solutions, announced a definitive agreement to sell the product lines and certain assets associated with its InfiniBand business to Intel Corporation for $125 million in cash. The sale is expected to close within this quarter, following the satisfaction of regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions.January 20 2012:
Microsemi Corporation, a provider of semiconductor solutions differentiated by power, security, reliability and performance, announced it has acquired the telecom clock generation, synchronization, packet timing and synthesis business from Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
According to Microsemi the acquired product lines and technology are vital to the effective and efficient delivery of time-sensitive voice, data and multimedia traffic over wireless and wired networks, and will further provide Microsemi's customers with the critical synchronization components required to harmonize system and network clocks, as well as the synthesis products required to distribute timing clocks throughout each system.January 12 2012:
Apple confirmed it had bought Israel's Anobit, a maker of flash storage technology.
Anobit has developed a chip that enhances flash drive performance through signal processing. The chip is already incorporated in Apple devices such as the iPhone, iPad and the MacBook Air.
Apple bought Anobit for as much as $500 million. It's Apple's first acquisition of an Israeli company. Apple declined to comment at the time.
January 05 2012:
Mindspeed Technologies, Inc., a supplier of semiconductor solutions for network infrastructure applications, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire U.K.-based Picochip Limited, a supplier of integrated system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for small cell base stations, for a purchase price of approximately $51.8 million, plus a potential earnout payment of up to $25 million payable in the first calendar quarter of 2013.January 05 2012:
Marvell announced it has completed the acquisition of Sweden-based Xelerated, AB, a technology innovator in network processing and programmable Ethernet switching solutions for the design of Carrier Ethernet, Unified Fiber Access, Mobile Backhaul and Transport platforms. Xelerated's AX and HX family of network processor and programmable switches complements Marvell's existing product portfolio of packet processors, ARM-based SoCs, wireless and low-power physical layer devices widely used in infrastructure, data center and enterprise networking equipment.-
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