Monday, August 30, 2010

Intel to Acquire Infineon’s Wireless Solutions Business

EUBIBERG, Germany & SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Infineon Technologies AG and Intel Corporation have entered into a definitive agreement to transfer Infineon’s Wireless Solutions (WLS) business to Intel in a cash transaction valued at approximately $1.4 billion.

WLS, a leading provider of cellular platforms to top tier global phone makers, will operate as a standalone business serving its existing customers. WLS will also contribute to Intel’s strategy to make connected computing ubiquitous from smartphones to laptops to embedded computing.

“The global demand for wireless solutions continues to grow at an extraordinary rate,” said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. “The acquisition of Infineon’s WLS business strengthens the second pillar of our computing strategy -- Internet connectivity -- and enables us to offer a portfolio of products that covers the full range of wireless options from Wi-Fi and 3G to WiMAX and LTE. As more devices compute and connect to the Internet, we are committed to positioning Intel to take advantage of the growth potential in every computing segment, from laptops to handhelds and beyond.”

“The sale of WLS is a strategic decision to enhance Infineon’s value. We can now fully concentrate our resources towards strong growth in our core segments Automotive (ATV), Industrial & Multimarket (IMM) and Chip Card & Security (CCS). This creates a great perspective for all Infineon customers, employees and shareholders,” said Peter Bauer, CEO of Infineon Technologies AG. “We all stand to benefit enormously from this deal. Thanks to the outstanding effort of the employees and the management during the last years, WLS is excellently positioned to grow further with the new owner who is ideally suited for this business.”

The WLS transaction is a strategic decision for Intel and Infineon. WLS complements Intel’s existing assets and enables growth in mobile computing, smartphones and embedded computing. Infineon will benefit from this by stronger addressing three central challenges to modern society – energy efficiency, mobility and security.

Intel’s goal is to expand its mobile and embedded product offerings to support additional customers and market segments, including smartphones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks and embedded computing devices. Through this effort, Intel will pair WLS’ best-in-class cellular technology with its core strengths to enable the delivery of low-power, Intel-based platforms that combine its applications processor with an expanded portfolio of wireless options -- bringing together Intel’s leadership in Wi-Fi and WiMAX with WLS’ leadership in 2G and 3G, and a combined path to accelerate 4G LTE.

Intel expects WLS to continue growing, and remaining a standalone business to ensure continuity of existing customer sales, projects and support. The business will continue to support its customers with the best solutions possible, including ARM-based products as well as Intel-based application processor platforms with leading-edge 3G slim modem solutions.

WLS today holds leading positions in the field of wireless mobility and cellular platforms for smart phones and ultra-low-cost, entry phones. WLS provides baseband processors, radio-frequency transceivers, power management integrated circuits (ICs), additional connectivity features, single-chip solutions as well as the corresponding system software. This helps to enable the smooth transmission of voice and high-speed data from the backbone of the telecommunication network to the end user’s device. With annual revenue of Euro 917 million, WLS was approximately 30 percent of Infineon’s total annual revenue of Euro 3.03 billion in the past financial year.

The board of directors of Intel and the supervisory board and the management board of Infineon have approved the transaction. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions specified in the definitive agreement.

About Infineon

Infineon Technologies AG, Neubiberg, Germany, offers semiconductor and system solutions addressing three central challenges to modern society: energy efficiency, mobility, and security. In the 2009 fiscal year (ending September), the company reported sales of Euro 3.03 billion with approximately 25,650 employees worldwide. With a global presence, Infineon operates through its subsidiaries in the U.S. from Milpitas, CA, in the Asia-Pacific region from Singapore, and in Japan from Tokyo. Infineon is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (ticker symbol: IFX) and in the USA on the over-the-counter market OTCQX International Premier (ticker symbol: IFNNY).

About Intel

Intel [NASDAQ: INTC], the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and http://blogs.intel.com.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

AppliedMicro Agrees to Acquire TPACK

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Aug. 18, 2010 – Applied Micro Circuits Corporation, or AppliedMicro (Nasdaq: AMCC) today announced that it has entered into a definitive stock purchase agreement to acquire TPACK A/S of Copenhagen, Denmark. Applied Micro Circuits will pay $32 million in cash plus up to $5 million in cash earn-outs that are depending primarily upon TPACK revenues and product development milestones scheduled over the next eighteen months. The transaction is expected to be profit neutral, excluding transaction costs, for our fiscal year ending March 31, 2011 and to be accretive thereafter.

The acquisition of TPACK, an industry-leading provider of silicon intellectual property (IP) for Mapping and Switching functions to leading telecom and networking equipment suppliers, will enable AppliedMicro to expand its presence and customer relationships in the rapidly growing Optical Transport Network (OTN) and Carrier Ethernet markets.

TPACK’s SOFTSILICON™ products support the fastest deployment of new carrier-class packet and optical network standards with the greatest flexibility for Tier 1 equipment vendors. Implemented in Altera FPGA devices, TPACK’s solutions address the unique requirements of individual equipment vendors and accelerate time-to-market for 10, 40 and 100 Gbps OTN switching and routing solutions. As OTN standards evolve and mature, AppliedMicro will use the early engagement work with customers and develop standard reference designs that maintain software compatibility while offering lower cost and lower power.

“While the OTN silicon market is growing rapidly, OTN standards and implementations are still evolving-- thereby offering system OEMs a broad field to uniquely differentiate their products with custom features and legacy support at various levels. This has led a large proliferation of FPGA technology within our customers’ platforms. These FPGA solutions sit beside our products and together provide a scalable, system solution for our customers,” said George Jones, Head of Marketing and Business Development for Transport products at AppliedMicro. “TPACK’s IP implemented in Altera FPGAs will provide us with the flexibility to meet our customers’ special requirements and get to market quickly with leading-edge performance. We believe TPACK’s team of talented engineers will make AppliedMicro more nimble and responsive to a greater range of market needs as system requirements continue to evolve and grow.”

Founded in 2001, TPACK has 37 employees, including 28 design engineers, and brings a track record of innovative product development and steady financial growth as a privately-held company. Following the acquisition closing, the company will continue to operate from its Copenhagen office as a wholly-owned subsidiary of AppliedMicro.

“AppliedMicro shares our vision on how to meet the emerging OTN standards, first with soft-FPGA solutions, and then extend the lessons learned from early customer engagements to improve integration of our Framer-Mapper and Carrier Packet Processor product lines,” said Colin L.M. Macnab, CEO of TPACK. “This acquisition delivers a partnership providing customers with an industry-first, allowing OEMs to transition from first-to-market solutions, through HardCopy® to volume production while maintaining a unified hardware and software architecture.”

“TPACK’s innovative SOFTSILICON™ solution extends the benefits of low NRE and feature-rich flexibility of FPGA solutions into rapidly emerging OTN market space,” said Arun Iyengar, senior director of the communications and broadcast business units at Altera Corporation. “With this acquisition, we look forward to having the same collaborative effort with AppliedMicro that we enjoyed with TPACK. The packet optical transport space is a focused market for us and one that we continue to build upon through our close work with AppliedMicro and the TPACK design team.”

The stock purchase transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close within the next thirty (30) days.

About TPACK
TPACK delivers cutting edge Silicon ICs providing core data transport and switching functions to leading Telecom and Networking equipment suppliers. TPACK’s SOFTSILICON products support the fastest deployment of new Carrier Class Packet and Optical Network standards, providing the most flexible, cost and power effective implementations throughout the life of the equipment. TPACK's customer base includes Tier 1 equipment providers who account for more than 50% of the optical transport equipment market.

AppliedMicro Overview
AppliedMicro is a global leader in energy conscious communications and computing solutions for telco, enterprise, data center, consumer and SMB applications. With a 30-year heritage as an innovator in high-speed connectivity and high performance embedded processing, AMCC, now AppliedMicro, employs patented transport and embedded processor SoCs to provide high performance energy efficient products. AppliedMicro's corporate headquarters are located in Sunnyvale, California. Sales and engineering offices are located throughout the world. For further information regarding AppliedMicro, visit the company’s Web site at http://www.apm.com.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Intel to Acquire Texas Instruments’ Cable Modem Unit

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intel Corporation today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Texas Instruments’ cable modem product line. The purchase enhances Intel’s focus on the cable industry and related consumer electronics (CE) market segments, where the company’s expertise in building advanced system-on-chip (SoC) products, based on Intel® Atom™ processors, will be applied.

Intel plans to combine Texas Instruments’ best-of-breed Puma product lines with the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) standard technology and Intel SoCs to deliver advanced set top box, residential gateway and modem products for the cable industry. The objective is to provide cable OEMs with an open and powerful platform for delivering innovative and differentiated products to service providers that improve the video, voice and data content experience at home.

“Adding the talents of the Texas Instruments’ cable team to Intel’s efforts to bring its advanced technology to consumer electronics makes for a compelling combination,” said Bob Ferreira, general manager, Cable Segment, Intel’s Digital Home Group. “Intel is focused on delivering SoCs that provide the foundation for consumer electronics devices such as set top boxes, digital TVs, Blu-ray* disc players, companion boxes and related devices. This acquisition specifically strengthens Intel’s product offerings for the continuum of cable gateway products and reinforces Intel’s continued commitment to the cable industry.”

All employees of Texas Instruments’ cable modem team received offers to join Intel at sites in their home countries, primarily Israel, and will become part of Intel’s Digital Home Group. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The agreement is subject to regulatory review and customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.

About Intel

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Summary list of recent Semiconductor M&A deals

Here's a summary list of M&A deals reported on Private Semiconductor™ and Filing Watch™ web sites within the past 15 months. No doubt I have failed to capture some deals as our focus is on transactions with North American connections.

Market recovery, limited growth opportunities and consolidation pressures drive semiconductor M&A