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Business News 2018
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  • December 19th, 2018:
  • On December 18th Cisco Systems, Inc. announced the intent to acquire privately-held Luxtera, Inc., a semiconductor company based in Carlsbad, Calif.
    Cisco will pay $660 million in cash and assumed equity awards for the acquisition of Luxtera. The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2019, subject to customary closing conditions and required regulatory approvals.
  • November 12th, 2018:
  • Infineon Technologies AG acquires Siltectra GmbH, a start-up based in Dresden. The start-up has developed an innovative technology (Cold Split) to process crystal material efficiently and with minimal loss of material. Infineon will use the Cold Split technology to split silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, thus doubling the number of chips out of one wafer. A purchase price of 124 million Euros was agreed on with the venture capital investor MIG Fonds, the main shareholder.
    Siltectra was founded in 2010 and has been growing an IP portfolio with more than 50 patent families. The start-up developed a technology for splitting crystalline materials with minimal loss of material compared to common sawing technologies. This technology can also be applied with the semiconductor material SiC, for which rapidly rising demand is expected in the coming years. SiC products are already used today in very efficient and compact solar inverters.
  • October 23rd, 2018:
  • Keyboard and electronic component maker Darfon Electronics has announced the acquisition of a 59.95% stake in antenna and piezoelectric ceramic device maker Unictron Technologies for NT$960 million (US$31.1 million).
  • October 12th, 2018:
  • Apple Inc. will acquire the majority of U.K.-based chipmaker Dialog Semiconductor's power management IC business for a total of $600 million, including $300 million for 300 Dialog engineers already focused on Apple chip development — plus assets — and a $300 million prepayment for Dialog products to be delivered over the next three years.
    The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first half of 2019, said Dialog. The company currently employs 2,100 people, so it will lose 16% of its workforce once the deal is done. At that point, Dialog expects to reduce operating expenses by about $35 million.
    As part of the deal, Apple will take over Dialog facilities in Livorno, Italy, Swindon, U.K., and Nabern and Neuaubing, Germany.
  • September 11th, 2018:
  • Renesas Electronics Corporation and Integrated Device Technology, Inc., a supplier of analog mixed-signal products including sensors, connectivity and wireless power, announced they have signed a definitive agreement under which Renesas will acquire IDT for US$49.00 per share in an all-cash transaction representing an equity value of approximately US$6.7 billion (approximately 733.0 billion yen at an exchange rate of 110 yen to the dollar).
    The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction. Closing of the transaction is expected to occur in the first half of 2019, following approvals by IDT shareholders and the relevant regulatory authorities.
  • August 9th, 2018:
  • On August 6th, 2018, Skyworks Solutions, Inc. announced it signed a definitive agreement to purchase Avnera Corporation, a developer of Analog System on Chips (ASoCs).
    Skyworks will pay $405 million in cash to Avnera equity holders at closing with up to an additional $20 million if certain performance targets are exceeded over a 12-month post-closing period. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both Skyworks and Avnera and is anticipated to close by September 2018, subject to customary closing conditions.
  • August 8th, 2018:
  • On August 6th, 2018, Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. completed the purchase of Calex Mfg Co. Inc.
    The financial terms of the transaction are undisclosed.
  • July 25th, 2018:
  • China's top state chip manufacturer Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd. has signed a deal to acquire French smart chip components maker Linxens France SA for about 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion).
    The deal was signed over a month ago but has not yet been announced publicly.
  • July 18th, 2018:
  • Xilinx, Inc. announced on July 17th that it has acquired DeePhi Technology Co., Ltd (DeePhi Tech), a Beijing-based privately held start-up with industry-leading capabilities in machine learning, specializing in deep compression, pruning, and system-level optimization for neural networks.
    The DeePhi Tech team will continue to operate out of its offices in Beijing, adding to the more than 200 employees Xilinx has in the Greater China Region.
    The financial terms of the transaction are undisclosed.
  • July 13th, 2018:
  • Intel Corporation has announced a plan to expand its programmable solutions portfolio to include structured ASICs by acquiring eASIC Corporation, headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
    Intel expects to complete the acquisition in the third quarter of 2018 after customary closing conditions are met.
    The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
  • May 23, 2018:
  • Taiwan-based YAGEO Corporation has reached a deal to buy US-based Pulse Electronics, a supplier of electronic components, for US$740 million in cash.
    Yageo indicated that through subsidiary Pluto Merger, the company will acquire 100% of Pulse for US$19.62 per share or a total of US$740 million. No timetable was set out for the acquisition.
    The acquisition will be funded by its own cash, said Yageo, adding that the company had accumulated more than NT$25 billion (US$836.4 million) in cash as of May 20. Yageo expects to strengthen its presence in the automotive electronics and industrial market segments.
  • May 14th, 2018:
  • On May 9th, 2018, Adesto Technologies, a provider of application-specific semiconductors for the IoT era, announced it has acquired Dublin-based S3 Semiconductors, a supplier of mixed-signal and RF application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and an extensive library of design IP.
    The transaction is valued at approximately $35 million, with an additional earn-out provision based on certain milestones to the end of calendar year 2019.
  • May 9th, 2018:
  • On May 8th, 2018, ON Semiconductor Corporation announced its acquisition of SensL Technologies Ltd. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to ON Semiconductor's non-GAAP earnings per share. SensL, based in Ireland, is a technology leader specializing in Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM), Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) and LiDAR sensing products for automotive, medical, industrial and consumer markets. This acquisition positions ON Semiconductor to extend its market leadership in automotive sensing applications for ADAS and autonomous driving with expanded capabilities in imaging, radar and LiDAR. By combining this acquisition in Ireland with previously acquired radar technology and design centers in Israel and United Kingdom, ON Semiconductor is uniquely positioned to provide a comprehensive set of sensor solutions for next generation highly autonomous vehicles and to solidify its position as a leader in image sensing and ultrasonic park assistance. In the second half of 2018, ON Semiconductor is planning to introduce samples to the market which incorporate technology from the radar assets acquired in 2017.
  • May 4th, 2018:
  • Osram Licht AG, a German manufacturer of lamps, lighting systems, and electronic control gears, announced today the acquisition of US-based Vixar Inc., which has specialist capabilities in the field of VCSEL.
    The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
  • May 4th, 2018:
  • Osram Licht AG, a German manufacturer of lamps, lighting systems, and electronic control gears, announced today the acquisition of Fluence Bioengineering, Inc. of Austin, Texas.
    The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
  • April 27th, 2018:
  • On April 26th, 2018, Cyient Limited, a provider of engineering, manufacturing, geospatial, networks, and operations management services, announced that its step down subsidiary Cyient Europe Ltd. has acquired AnSem N.V., a fabless, custom analog and mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) design company. AnSem specializes in advanced analog, radio frequency, and mixed-signal integrated circuit design and provides custom ASICs for clients around the world.
    The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
  • April 24th, 2018:
  • On April 20th, 2018, Alibaba Group announced the acquisition of C-Sky Microsystems, a designer of China's home-grown 32-bit embedded CPU processing core.
    The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
  • March 29th, 2018:
  • Himax Technologies, Inc., a supplier and fabless manufacturer of display drivers and other semiconductor products, today announced that it has decided to exercise its options to fully acquire Emza Visual Sense Ltd. Terms of the investment were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter, 2018.
  • March 6th, 2018:
  • Cree, Inc. has acquired assets of Infineon Technologies AG Radio Frequency (RF) Power Business for approximately € 345 million. The transaction expands the Cree Wolfspeed business unit's wireless market opportunity. Infineon continues to drive key growth areas such as electro-mobility, autonomous driving, renewables and technologies for a connected world. The transaction has closed and is effective today.
  • March 2nd, 2018:
  • On March 1st, 2018, Microchip Technology Incorporated and Microsemi Corporation announced that the two companies have signed a definitive agreement pursuant to which Microchip will acquire Microsemi for $68.78 per share in cash. The acquisition price represents a total equity value of about $8.35 billion, and a total enterprise value of about $10.15 billion, after accounting for Microsemi's cash and investments, net of debt, on its balance sheet at December 31, 2017.
  • March 2nd, 2018:
  • On February 28th, 2018, TDK Corporation acquired Chirp Microsystems Inc.
    Both companies agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction.
  • February 20th, 2018:
  • Infineon Technologies today announced the acquisition of Merus Audio. The Copenhagen-based start-up was founded in 2010 by Hans Hasselby-Andersen and Mikkel Hoyerby. Merus Audio creates energy-efficient integrated audio amplifier solutions. They maximize audio performance and battery playback time for smart home and battery-powered speakers while minimizing heat and design space. Merus Audio will be fully integrated into Infineon's existing audio business and becomes part of the Power Management & Multimarket Division.
    Both companies agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction.
  • January 11th, 2018:
  • Synopsys, Inc. announced that it has bought San Jose, California-based Kilopass Technology Inc., founded in 2001, a pioneer in one-time programmable non-volatile memory IP.
    The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
  • January 5th, 2018:
  • Power inductor maker Chilisin Electronics announced it will acquire a 100% stake in fellow maker Mag.Layer Scientific Technics through a stock swap in which 0.73 Chilisin share will be exchanged for one Mag.Layer unit. Chilisin will issue 68.231 million new shares for the deal, with the stock swap slated for July 1st, 2018.
  • Archived News Pages:
    Business News 2017
    Business News 2016
    Business News 2015
    Business News 2014
    Business News 2013
    Business News 2012
    Business News 2011
    Business News 2010
    Business News 2009
    Business News 2008
    Business News 2007
    Business News 2005
    Business News 2004
    Business News 2003
    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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