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Business News 2002
  • December 16. 2002:
    Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. announced that it completed the acquisition of BCcomponents Holdings BV, a leading manufacturer of passive components with operations in Europe, India and the Far East. The product lines of BCcomponents include linear and non-linear resistors, ceramic, film and aluminum electrolytic capacitors, switches and trimming potentiometers.
  • December 13. 2002:
    Cornell Dubilier announced that it has acquired the DC electrolytic portion of BC Components, Inc., located in Columbia, SC, from BCcomponents Holdings B.V. The Columbia facility is state of the art and manufactures screw terminal and snap-in electrolytic capacitors. Columbia sales in 2001 were $21 million.
  • November 25. 2002:
    OpTun Inc. has signed a definitive agreement with Infineon Technologies AG to acquire its fibre optic Passive Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) unit and merge it with its own. Infineon will transfer related intellectual property and patents to the new company, and be a shareholder. Infineon will also act as a global distributor for OpTun's products. The combined company which will retain the OpTun brand will provide Smart WDM solutions and modules to the optical networking systems market.
  • November 7. 2002:
    Europe agrees final lead ban date.
    The long expected European ban on lead in electrical and electronic equipment will come into force on 1st July 2006, nearly 2 years earlier than the date proposed in the original draft of the legislation. In addition to lead, the use of mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium and two types of brominated flame retardants, PBB and PBDE will be phased out by 1st July 2006.
  • October 29. 2002:
    Cambridge Display Technology Ltd. [CDT], a developer and licensor of light emitting plastic materials has bought out the organic light emitting display (OLED) development business from Opsys Limited, based in Oxford, England. The deal is a mix of cash and deferred shares in CDT but the values were not disclosed.
  • October 29. 2002:
    Alliance Semiconductor Corp. acquires WAN-chip maker Chip Engines Inc., a fabless supplier of silicon solutions for next-generation, wide-area networking systems. Chip Engines develops integrated circuits based on the Resilient Packet Ring (RPR), Multi-Protocol Labeled Switching (MPLS) and Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) standards. The technologies are designed for use in 10-gigabit-per-second Ethernet and metropolitan area networks.
  • October 23. 2002:
    Agere Systems Inc. announced the sale of its optoelectronics business to TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. for $40 million in cash. The transaction excludes Agere's cable television transmission systems components business. During September, Agere Systems also completed the sale of its wireless LAN equipment business to Proxim Inc. for $65 million, and its analog line card business to Legerity Inc. for $70 million.
  • October 22. 2002:
    Artisan Components Inc. acquires NurLogic Design Inc. for $21 million in cash and stock. NurLogic supplies high-performance mixed signal and communications IP to the semiconductor industry, Arisan is a provider of digital semiconductor intellectual property (IP).
  • October 18. 2002:
    Computer chipset maker VIA Technologies has acquired Freehand DSP AB of Sundbyberg, Sweden, for an undisclosed sum. Freehand has developed DSP cores for voice communications applications and offered them for license as semiconductor intellectual property.
  • October 17. 2002:
    Celeritek Inc. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tavanza Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif. for an undisclosed price. Celeritek Inc. is a manufacturer of gallium-arsenide (GaAs) semiconductors, Tavanza is a privately-held, fabless IC designer of power amplifier modules and components for cellular and wireless LAN products. The Tavanza acquisition will leverage Celeritek's 802.11a WLAN product development strategy by providing the CMOS design expertise necessary to develop integrated multi-band 802.11 a/b/g front end modules.
  • October 16. 2002:
    RF Micro Devices acquires WLAN-chip maker Resonext. With the acquisition of Resonext Communications Inc., based in San Jose, RF Micro would gain a quick entry into the WLAN chip market. RF Micro Devices' goal is to become the leading provider of WLAN chip sets.
  • October 07. 2002:
    Consumer-chip maker OPTI Inc. sold its semiconductor business to Opti Technologies Inc., an unaffiliated company formed to acquire the semiconductor business, for approximately $700,000 in cash plus future royalties.
  • October 07. 2002:
    Sipex Corp., Milpitas, Calif., a maker of analog circuits, announced the sale of assets related to its Thin Film and Hybrid Assembly business to SatCon Electronics Inc., a division of SatCon Technology Corp. The sale included equipment and inventory used in the operations of its hybrid business. SatCon is expected to continue to service the existing customers of Sipex'sHybrid business.
  • October 07. 2002:
    AMI Semiconductor Inc. has bought the micro power products division of Microsemi Corp. for an undisclosed sum. Located in Carlsbad, California, the 15-person design team that will be joining AMIS focuses on low voltage amplifier technology for medical applications, low power delta-sigma converter design, and developing ASICs for the medical market.
  • October 07. 2002:
    Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. have agreed to merge their chip operations - excluding DRAM memories - into a new $7 billion semiconductor company to be called Renesas Technology Corp.
  • September 18. 2002:
    KVG Quartz Crystal Technology GmbH, one of Europes most respected manufacturer of Quartz products is back on its very own feets. In 1996 KVG was taken over by DOVER Inc. as their European production line for crystals and crystal products. Since May 2002 KVG Quartz Crystal Technology GmbH is an independent company again. The owner is Manfred Klimm, who has been in leading positions in KVG for many years. The new independence gives KVG the flexibility to focus on its core business: Precision Quartz Crystal Products.
  • September 16. 2002:
    Integrated Device Technology, Inc. [IDT] acquired Canada's Solidum Systems Corp., a provider of classification and network processors. Solidum brings technology expertise and intellectual property to the party, which is complementary to IDT's packet-processing and content-addressable memory (CAM) products. Ottawa-based Solidum offers a family of programmable classification processors that can be configured to inspect and classify packets in applications at up to OC-48 line rates.
  • September 10. 2002:
    Pixelworks, Inc., a leading provider of system-on-a-chip ICs for the advanced display market, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Jaldi Semiconductor Corporation, a privately held fabless semiconductor company based near Toronto in Richmond Hill, Ontario. Jaldi's technology will expand Pixelworks' product portfolio for the digital television market. Jaldi's high-performance reconfigurable DSP semiconductor designs include advanced features and outstanding picture quality for a new generation of standard and high-definition digital televisions.
  • September 04. 2002:
    National Semiconductor Corp. has acquired DigitalQuake Inc., a Campbell, California-based developer of digital display chip products. Founded in 2000, DigitalQuake makes scaler chips for digital displays. Scaling is required to change the resolution and size of the display. DigitalQuake will be integrated into National Semiconductor's Displays Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
  • August 23. 2002:
    Advanced Photonix, Inc. [API] has acquired the assets of Silicon Sensors LLC for $1.7 million in cash. Silicon Sensors, based in Dodgeville, Wis., is a developer of optoelectronic semiconductor-based components, hybrid assemblies, and solid-state-light and radiation detection devices. The acquisition of Silicon Sensors will substantially enhance API's manufacturing capacity and capabilities, broaden its customer base.
  • August 16. 2002:
    Sirenza Microdevices Inc., a supplier of radio frequency (RF) components acquires Xemod Inc. for approximately $4.5 million in cash, with extra cash to come for the achievement of certain technology licensing objectives. Xemod is a privately held, fabless maker of RF power amplifier modules and components based on lateral double-diffused transistor (LDMOS) technology. The company is based in Tempe, Arizona. Sirenza expects the acquisition to be completed in September or October 2002.
  • August 1. 2002:
    MEMSCAP SA, one of the pioneers of the micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), has agreed to buy the Cronos business unit from JDS Uniphase Corp. As part of the agreement, JDS Uniphase is committing buy MEMS products exclusively from Memscap for at least three years following the close of the deal. Cronos is itself a pioneer of MEMS technology. It is widely known for its Multi-User MEMS Processes (MUMPS) foundry service, currently being expanded from polysilicon-based technology to metal and silicon-on-insulator. Cronos, originally a commercial spin-off of the Microelectronics Center North Carolina (MCNC), was acquired by JDS Uniphase in April 2000.
  • July 24. 2002:
    Synopsys, Inc. acquires inSilicon Corp., a provider of connectivity base intellectual property cores headquartered in San Jose, California, for about $64 millionThe transaction will be effected by means of a cash tender offer of $4.05 per share for all of the outstanding shares of inSilicon.
    Under the terms of the deal Synopsys will also assume certain inSilicon stock options in the transaction. Phoenix Technologies, which owns approximately 69% of the outstanding shares of inSilicon, has agreed to tender those shares to Synopsys.
    The acquisition of inSilicon will provide Synopsys's customers with access to a strong portfolio of open format, digital and mixed signal connectivity IP designed by one of the industry's leading analog and digital design teams.
  • July 15. 2002:
    Lattice Semiconductor Corp. announced that it has acquired Cerdelinx Technologies Inc. for $23 million in stock. Cerdelinx is an early stage fabless semiconductor company focused on the design of application specific standard Products targeted towards emerging high-speed communications and storage applications. Cerdelinx currently has a team of 27 engineers who are developing a portfolio of low-power CMOS transceivers and backplane interfaces with embedded high-speed SERDES I/O to support 10 gigabit-per-second applications. The acquisition will serve to enhance Lattice's silicon development efforts and its ability to deliver leading-edge programmable solutions within the OC-192, networking and storage market segments.
  • July 12. 2002:
    Marconi Corporation plc has sold its Applied Technologies division to venture capital firm 3i Group plc for £57 million, or about $89 million. The RF and semiconductor component and manufacturing business is based in Chelmsford, Essex. Marconi Applied Technologies, (formerly EEV) is to be re-named E2V Technologies, and is globally renowned as a centre of innovative excellence in a number of complex fields, including the design and manufacture of RF microwave, imaging and sensor components and subsystems for the industrial, defence, medical, scientific and broadcast communications market sectors.
  • June 25. 2002:
    GlobespanVirata Inc. announced it has sold its MPEG video and audio compression business line to Conexant Systems Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif. In exchange for the assets and rights, GlobespanVirata will receive $21 million of cash and 1.25 million shares of Conexant common stock. Some 45 employees from the company's MPEG compression team will join Conexant and will continue to be located in San Jose.
  • June 18. 2002:
    Agere Systems Inc. announced it has sold its analog line-card chip business to Legerity, Inc. for $70 million in cash. The transaction includes the Products, technology and intellectual property related to Agere's analog line-card business. As part of the transaction, approximately 50 employees of Agere's analog line-card business will join Legerity of Austin, Tex. Agere Systems completed its spin-off from Lucent Technologies on June 1, 2002, and is now a fully separate company.
  • June 17. 2002:
    Agere Systems Inc. announced it has sold its wireless local area network (LAN) equipment business to Proxim Corporation for $65 million in cash.
  • June 18. 2002:
    IBM Corp.'s Microelectronics Division exits the standard Products market for cellular phones, selling its wireless chip set business to TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. for $22 million. Under the agreement, TriQuint will take over the design, development, marketing and sales of standard and custom IBM semiconductor Products used in wireless phones and other communications applications. IBM will continue to manufacture the components for TriQuint. The IBM Products being transferred to TriQuint include voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), receivers and wideband CDMA chip sets, all based on IBM's silicon germanium (SiGe) process technology.
  • June 13. 2002:
    According to a report in the form of an e-mail from the Linley Group, Terago Communications Inc., a high-profile network processor startup with promising technology, has reportedly run out of money, laid off its employees and ceased operations.
  • June 13. 2002:
    Germany's Infineon Technologies AG announced plans to acquire Ericsson's microelectronics operation for $377 million in stock. Under the terms, Infineon will acquire Ericsson Microelectronics AB in Sweden and related global activities. The German chip giant will also assume control of Ericsson Microelectronics' Products, R&D, and certain manufacturing facilities. Ericsson Microelectronics, which has about 700 employees, is most known for its efforts in the Bluetooth chip arena. The company was one of the pioneers in Bluetooth, offering a line of transceivers for this short-range wireless technology.
  • June 13. 2002:
    ATI Technologies Inc. announced plans to acquire NxtWave Communications Inc. for $20 million cash. The move enables graphics-chip specialist ATI to expand into the broadband and other markets. NxtWave is developing a proprietary DSP adapted for applications in digital terrestrial and cable receivers. NxtWave was established under the name of Sarnoff Digital Communications Inc., and was spun out of Sarnoff in 1996. In 1999, the company changed its name to NxtWave Communications.
  • June 13. 2002:
    MoSys [Monolithic System Technology Inc.] has entered into an agreement to acquire Canada's Atmos Corp. Under the terms, MoSys will pay approximately $10 million in cash together with an earn out arrangement of under $4 million for employee shareholders using MoSys stock. MoSys, a supplier of so-called 1T-SRAM technology, will expand its efforts in the embedded space with Atmos.
  • May 30. 2002:
    The Philips management decided to transfer the marketing, sales and support of the GaAs optical networking Products from Philips Semiconductors to Philips OMMIC, effective June 30, 2002. Philips OMMIC is the development and manufacturing organization and Philips Semiconductors has been the selling organization for these GaAs optical networking Products. Philips has now decided that Philips OMMIC is to provide the required marketing, sales and service support for these GaAs optical networking Products to further enhance and optimize Philips OMMIC's leading position in GaAs Products and services to Philips' global customers. Given the unique service and support requirement for GaAs technologies, Philips believes this transition will increase necessary focus and flexibility for its customers. Philips Semiconductors will continue to develop, manufacture and sell optical networking Products in its' CMOS and BiCMOS technologies and these Products are not affected by this transfer.
  • May 23. 2002:
    Microchip Technology Inc. acquires privately-held PowerSmart Inc., a fabless semiconductor spin-off from Duracell, for $54 million in cash. PowerSmart was formed as a spin-off from Duracell about four years ago. The company is based in Shelton, Conn., and has operations in Plano, Tex., and Needham, Mass. About 40 employees work for PowerSmart, which develops and sells field-programmable embedded control ICs and battery sensors based on these I Cs.The acquisition will complement Microchip's microcontroller offerings in the office automation, consumer and automotive market segments by strengthening its position in battery management applications such as laptop computers, personal digital assistants, cellular telephones, digital cameras, digital camcorders, uninterruptible power supplies and Hybrid Electric Vehicles.
  • May 08. 2002:
    Virage Logic Corp. announced an agreement to acquire In-Chip Systems Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., a supplier of logic platforms for system-on-chip (SoC) designs. The purchase will be for stock and cash valued at less than $20 million. Privately-held In-Chip markets the patented NXT cell architecture. The six-year-old Sunnyvale company employs 15 chip designers and engineers. In-Chip's solutions are used by major manufacturers such as Agere, Epson, Fujitsu, Motorola, NEC, Sony, Oki, Toshiba, and Yamaha.
  • May 08. 2002:
    Microsemi Corp. announced plans to sell its low-frequency RF bipolar transistor business to Advanced Power Technology Inc. [APT] of Bend, Ore., for $12.2 million in cash. Microsemi RF Products Inc. is based in Montgomeryville, Pa., where it operates a 20,000-square-foot wafer fab and radio-frequency chip production center. Microsemi acquired the operation from SGS-Thomson Microelectronics in 1996.
  • May 02. 2002:
    VIA Technologies Inc. enters the cellular-phone chip set market, announcing it has acquired the CDMA product operations from LSI Logic Corp. for an undisclosed price. Under the terms, Taiwan's Taipei-based PC chip set giant will acquire LSI Logic's CDMA standard Products design center in San Diego. The center specializes in the development of advanced CDMA-based integrated circuits for next-generation wireless mobile voice and data applications. Leader in the arena is Qualcomm Inc. The San Diego-based company has 90% market share or more in the CDMA chip set world.
  • May 01. 2002:
    Infineon Technologies will establish a joint venture with Nanya Technology to build 300mm wafer facilities in Taiwan and develop process technologies. The two companies are slated to sign a memorandum of understanding. In the last two months, Infineon has turned to Taiwan to secure additional capacity to expand share in the DRAM industry, which some analysts expect will show strong demand in the second half of this year. Infineon began receiving 48% of output from ProMOS Technologies Inc. - Infineon's venture with Taiwan's Mosel Vitelic Inc. - a gain from 38%. Infineon also formed a partnership with Winbond Electronics Corp., Hsinchu, Taiwan, licensing its advanced 0.11-micron technology and getting exclusive access to commodity DRAM chips from the first quarter of 2003 produced by Winbond using this technology.
  • May 01. 2002:
    Cisco Systems Inc. plans to acquire Navarro Networks (Plano, Texas), a network-processor startup it had helped fund. Cisco is offering $85 million in stock to acquire Navarro, a startup described as a specialist in Ethernet ASICs. But Navarro's initial goal was to work with Cisco to design a high-end network processor.
  • April 30. 2002:
    Hynix Semiconductor Inc. [Korea]'s Board of Directors unanimously rejected the proposed sale of its core memory operations to Micron Technology Inc., killing the deal that would have brought badly needed consolidation to the DRAM industry and flouting the earlier approval of creditors who have extended two multi-billion bailout packages to the sickly Korean memory maker.
  • April 29. 2002:
    TriQuint Semiconductor is buying Infineon Technologies's gallium arsenide semiconductor business. The unit employs about 80 people involved in development and marketing of GaAs devices, who will transfer to TriQuint Semiconductor. For TriQuint, this partnership provides access to Infineon's technologies and system solution platform, and will strengthen its European presence. TriQuint will not acquire the manufacturing operations, but enter into an interim supply agreement with Infineon while the process is being transferred to TriQuint's Oregon operation.
  • April 26. 2002:
    JDS Uniphase Corp. acquires San Jose based Scion Photonics, Inc. for $43 million in cash. JDS Uniphase Corp. will acquire Scion's planar lightwave circuit technology and the company's 8-inch fabrication facility. Scion makes application-specific photonic products, such as arrayed waveguide grating devices, variable optical attenuator arrays and advanced integrated devices.
  • April 24. 2002:
    Power semiconductor maker IXYS Corp. announced an agreement to acquire Clare Inc. of Beverly, Mass., a supplier of high-voltage ICs, solid-state relays, mixed-signal ASICs and drivers for organic light emitting diode (OLEDs).
  • April 23. 2002:
    After months of negotiations, Micron Technology Inc. announced a non-binding agreement to purchase the memory business of Hynix Semiconductor Inc. for 108.6 million shares of stock, valued at about $3.2 billion. Micron said it has also agreed to invest $200 million in Hynix in return for a 15% equity stake in the Korean company's non-memory chip business. If the acquisition is completed, it would combine the world's second and third largest DRAM makers in the world, pushing Micron ahead of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in the $11 billion market for dynamic random access memories. It could also help Hynix, which is being crushed with more than $6 billion in debt.
  • April 23. 2002:
    Amkor Technology Inc. announced a preliminary agreement to set up a joint venture with Fujitsu Ltd. to take over backend production activities in the company's assembly plant located in Kagoshima. Under the agreement, U.S.-based Amkor will purchase the Fujitsu facility in stages. First, a joint-venture company will be formed through Amkor's acquisition of 67% in the Kyushu Fujitsu Electronics Ltd. operation. The chip-assembly business will be operated as a joint venture for three years, after which Amkor will buy out the remaining 33% from Fujitsu for a predetermined value, according to the preliminary non-binding agreement.
  • April 19. 2002:
    NEC Electronics will transfer its production of amorphous TFT LCDs to a joint venture in mainland China, having signed a letter of intent with State-Owned Shanghai General Electronics Group Co. Ltd. and its subsidary Shanghai Video & Audio Electronics Co. Ltd. (SVA). NEC and SVA plan to capitalize their joint venture at about $385 million, with SVA providing 75 percent and NEC providing 25 percent of the funding.
  • April 18. 2002:
    Xicor Inc. acquired privately-held Analog Integration Partners, LLC, a developer of analog signal processing and data conversion circuits based in Milpitas. The purchase was completed for $15 million in stock and cash. Three-year-old Analog Integrated Partners (AIP) has been led by a team of engineering veterans from Exar, Micropower Systems, and Sage. Xicor intends to use the acquisition to increase its presence in next-generation communications, graphics, and video IC applications.
  • April 16. 2002:
    STMicroelectronics agreed to acquire Alcatel Microelectronics from telecom giant Alcatel SA for 390 million euros ($343 million) in cash. But in an usual twist, STMicroelectronics turned around and announced it had also agreed to sell the mixed-signal business of Alcatel Microelectronics to AMI Semiconductor Inc. of Pocatello, Idaho.
    ST's transaction with AMI Semiconductor will cover Alcatel Microelectronics' mixed-signal ASIC business and development groups, including two fabrication facilities located in Oudenaarde, Belgium, and the associated process technologies.
  • April 16. 2002:
    Startup Athena Semiconductors Inc. announced the formation of the company, setting its sights to compete in the wireless local-area networking (WLAN) chip set market.
    The company also announced that it has acquired the key WLAN technologies from ComSilica Inc. of the U.S. and Hellenic Semiconductor Applications of Greece. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
    Athena Semiconductors will be headquartered in Fremont, and will have design centers in India and Greece. The company also closed a $5 million Series A round of funding led by Alliance Ventures.
    The funding and technologies will enable the company to develop WLAN chips, based on the 802.11 standard. Applications for WLAN chip sets include PCs, consumer devices such as digital still cameras, video cameras, TVs, set-top boxes, residential gateways, and other products.
  • April 16. 2002:
    International Rectifier Corp. announced it is acquiring a power generation systems maker, called TechnoFusion GmbH (previous WEB-Address), from Royal Philips Electronics N.V. for $50 million in cash. Philips in Amsterdam said TechnoFusion lies outside of its core business, and the divestment is intended to secure the unit's future development. TechnoFusion, based in Krefeld, Germany, is one of about 30 "non-strategic businesses" in Philips Electronics that are being prepared for divestment or merger during the next 18 months. The sale of these businesses will generate an estimated 1 billion ($880 million), according to the Dutch electronics company.
  • April 12. 2002:
    Motorola Inc. announced an R&D semiconductor technology alliance with STMicroelectronics and Royal Philips Electronics N.V.
    Philips in the Netherlands and ST, based near Geneva, have been technology-process partners for 10 years. The two European chip makers also have been cooperating in 300-mm wafer technology development and a pilot production line at ST's plant site in Crolles, France.
    Last month, Royal Philips Electronics N.V., ST, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. announced a new technology R&D alliance for 90-nm (0.09-micron) and 65-nm (0.065-micron) processes.
    Since the late 1990s, Motorola's Semiconductor Products Sector has been teamed with Advanced Micro Devices Inc., but that alliance is now ending at the 100-nm (0.10-micron) node. AMD has struck a new R&D partnership and 300-mm foundry agreement with Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp.
  • April 09. 2002:
    Broadcom Corp. agreed to purchase Mobilink Telecom Inc. for as much as $251 million in a move to enter the handset baseband market. Mobilink Telecom, a supplier of chipsets and reference designs for mobile phones, PDAs and cellular modem cards, currently offers volume production of baseband chipsets for Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) chipsets.
  • April 05. 2002:
    Parthus Technologies plc and U.S.-based DSP Group Inc. today announced an agreement to combine their intellectual property (IP) licensing businesses into a new company to serve digital signal processing-based applications in digital communications, wireless systems, and multimedia devices. The new company will be called ParthusCeva Inc., and it will be headquartered in San Jose.
  • April 05. 2002:
    Apple Computer Inc. announced it has acquired 1394 FireWire chip and software supplier Zayante Inc., based in nearby Scotts Valley, to strengthen its serial connection technology for high-speed transfer of data from CDs, video systems, and other peripherals between Mac computers and iPod systems.Zayante was founded in 1996 and is a supplier of 1394 silicon and software for consumer and computer systems.
  • April 04. 2002:
    Fairchild has acquired 11-year-old I-Cube Inc. Campbell, Calif., which develops and supplies cross-point switches for Internet infrastructure, data communications, telecommunications, broadcast video, test equipment and digital signal processing.
  • April 04. 2002:
    Fairchild has purchased Signal Processing Technologies [SPT] from Toko Inc. The acquisition adds analog and mixed-signal products to Fairchild's portfolio, including analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), digital-to-analog converters (DACs) and comparators for a range of market applications.
  • March 28. 2002:
    TransSwitch Corp. announced it is acquiring full ownership of privately-held Systems On Silicon Inc. [SOSi] of Mammoth Junction, N.J. SOSi supplies ICs for integrated access devices used in multi-tenant units and carrier-class systems for voice and data networks. Shelton-based TranSwitch said SOSi will become a wholly-owned subsidiary after the closing of the transaction.
  • March 20. 2002:
    EMCORE Corporation, a leading provider of semiconductor technologies for global communications, announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Applied Solar Division business of Tecstar Inc. EMCORE will continue Tecstar's impressive flight heritage and solar component manufacturing expertise, which dates back to 1958 when the Vanguard satellite with Tecstar solar cells was launched. Tecstar's solar panel technology has flown on numerous successful satellite missions, including Lockheed Martin's Chinastar, Loral's Telstar satellite and Orbital Sciences' ORBCOMM Constellation. Tecstar's solar cells were used to accomplish the recent Hubble Space Telescope power upgrade. EMCORE's multi-junction solar cell technology will be used on approximately 10 satellite launches over the next 3 years. The Company is currently completing the process of qualifying its advanced solar cells with Tecstar's proven solar panel processes for LEO and GEO orbits.
  • March 19. 2002:
    Hitachi Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. agreed to push ahead with a proposed merger of their non-memory semiconductor businesses and create a new $6 billion chip company next year to sell a range of products, including microcontrollers, logic ICs, analog circuits, and discrete devices. The two Japanese companies said specific details about the plan will be released at a later date.
  • March 19. 2002:
    International Rectifier Corp. has acquired the assets of European Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. (ESM), a silicon foundry company in Newport, Wales, which has been struggling with bankruptcy in the industry downturn. IR said it bought ESM's submicron 8-inch wafer fab and operations for $81 million in cash. The mixed-signal chip-making plant will be used to increase IR's production of analog ICs and power semiconductors.
  • March 18. 2002:
    ATC [Analog Technology, Inc.] has acquired ICT's PLD business. Starting 3/1/2002, all new orders for SPLD's and CPLD's will be serviced by ATC.
    For North American customers, ICT has transferred the whole technical team, sales support team and manufacturing team to ATC's sole US agent, Anachip USA, Inc.
  • March 11. 2002:
    Intersil Corp. announced plans to acquire Elantec Semiconductor Inc. of Milpitas, Calif., for $1.4 billion in stock and cash. The acquisition is aimed at combining Elantec's presence in analog optical storage and flat-panel display applications with Intersil's product activities in wireless local area networks and power management. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter following shareholder approval and clearance from regulatory agencies.In addition to addressing optical storage and flat-panel display applications, Elantec's product offerings in communication ICs and standard analog.
  • March 11. 2002:
    PC and digital entertainment systems maker Creative Technology Ltd. announced it will acquire full ownership of 3D Labs Inc. Ltd. of Sunnyvale, Calif., which supplies graphics accelerator chips and software primarily used in professional computing applications such as design automation, content creation, and visual simulation. With the growing demand for higher performance graphics in "power" gaming systems, Creative sees an opportunity to expand 3DLabs' products and technology from the high-end professional computing segment into high-volume PC consumer markets.
  • March 08. 2002:
    Hynix Semiconductor Inc.'s plan to sell its thin film transistor LCD operation to Cando Corporation, a Taiwan components supplier, for $650 million has hit a snag, and a company spokeswoman Thursday said the Korean firm is now lookingfor other possible buyers.
    The deal between the companies was announced last September. Hynix said it has canceled the exclusive negotiating rights with Cando, although it will continue to talk with the Taiwan color filter maker. However, the spokesperson said Hynix will now seek other interested parties to sell three TFT-LCD fabs in Incheon, Korea.
  • March 05. 2002:
    In a bankruptcy auction, Genesis Microchip Inc. has won a bid to purchase the assets of VM Labs Inc. VM Labs, a Mountain View, Californa - based fabless semiconductor company focused on the DVD market. VM Labs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection during December. The company's NUON product line of semiconductors and software have been used in DVD players and networked set-top boxes sold by Toshiba, Samsung, and Motorola.
  • February 28. 2002:
    Genesis Microchip Inc. completed its acquisition of Sage Inc. in nearby Milpitas. Genesis Microchip Inc. expects to post a 9.5% sequential increase in revenues in the current fiscal quarter after completing its acquisition for about $241 million in stock. Genesis Microchip acquired Sage to accelerate its growth into consumer video ICs.
  • February 15. 2002:
    Micron Technology is acquiring assets of Music Semiconductors Inc., Milpitas, Calif. A Micron spokesman Thursday confirmed that the memory firm submitted the winning bid - the minimum allowed by the court - in the Music Semiconductor bankruptcy case.
  • February 14. 2002:
    STMicroelectronics has acquired the DSL chip and intellectual-property technology from Tioga Technologies Ltd. for $10 million. The deal calls for ST to acquire Tioga's current and future DSL products. In addition, ST was granted an option to purchase the shares or assets of Tioga before Jan. 15, 2003, for an additional $12 million.
  • February 06. 2002:
    NEC Corporation Japan and Tokin Corporation signed a definitive agreement whereby NEC will divide and transfer its business of manufacturing and sale of capacitors, batteries and relays to Tokin, effective as of April 1, 2002.
    NEC is currently aiming to advance its solution business and, at the same time, to maximize the corporate value of the entire NEC Group by reorganization of its affiliates. In order to focus on the system LSI business, NEC Electron Devices, one of the in-house companies of NEC, will transfer the Business to Tokin, and will stimulate the growth of Tokin as the company in charge of electronic components business within the NEC Group. Tokin, which has a wide range of products based on materials-orientated technology, will aim to become a world leading electronic components manufacturer by strengthening competitiveness through the integration of NEC's electronic components business and synergies created thereby such as the unification of engineering resources and the acceleration of shift to overseas production.
  • January 30. 2002:
    AMD [Advanced Micro Devices] plans to acquire Alchemy Semiconductor Founded in 1999, Alchemy Semiconductor recently started shipping standard embedded products based on its Au1000 processor core. The performance-to-power ratio places the Alchemy's products in the mid-to-high performance range that Intel targets with its Xscale processor. The acquisition will return AMD to the embedded processor market.
  • January 29. 2002:
    Philips Semiconductors and Mitsumi Electric Co. Ltd. announced plans to jointly develop, manufacture, market, and sale analog and mixed-signal ICs worldwide. Under the new agreement, Philips and Mitsumi will cross-sell existing product lines from each other. As new products are jointly developed, both companies will hold intellectual property rights and have the right to sell the ICs through their own channels.
  • January 24. 2002:
    Amkor Technology, Inc. today announced a definitive agreement to acquire the semiconductor assembly business of Citizen Watch Co., Ltd. Citizen's assembly operations are located in Kitakami / Iwate Japan, in close proximity to the Amkor Iwate assembly factory. The acquisition should be completed on or about January 31, 2002. Citizen's assembly business operates as a third party subcontractor, providing advanced IC packaging for a broad range of Japanese semiconductor companies. Citizen also has a strong portfolio of packaging intellectual property, specifically regarding BGA packaging technology. Amkor will acquire the assembly operations together with Citizen's IC packaging intellectual property. In connection with the acquisition, Amkor expects to hire approximately 83 employees from Citizen's assembly operations. More information on Amkor is available from the company's web site.
  • January 04. 2002:
    Power semiconductor supplier IXYS Corp. will acquire U.K.-based Westcode Semiconductor. Westcode in Chippenham, England, develops and sells a range of high-power devices.