In the past year, even under adversity, the semiconductor industry still hopes to occupy the "new high ground" of technology and market through mergers and acquisitions, so as to continuously improve its competitiveness.
In 2022, there will be many semiconductor mergers and acquisitions that have attracted much attention. Some transactions have been completed, and some are still in progress, and there are many large-scale mergers and acquisitions. The following are the top ten mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor industry in 2022 by Global Semiconductor Watch, with a total amount of more than 128 billion US dollars.
AMD Completes Acquisition of Xilinx
Acquirer: AMD
Acquisition amount: $49.8 billion
On February 14, 2022, semiconductor design company AMD stated that it has completed the acquisition of programmable chip manufacturer Xilinx. According to the current stock transaction value of both parties, the acquisition amount is expected to reach 49.8 billion US dollars. Previously, on January 24, AMD announced that it would complete the acquisition of Xilinx in an all-stock-transaction manner.
Xilinx's leading FPGA-adaptive Soc, artificial intelligence engine and software expertise will empower AMD to bring a powerful combination of high-performance and adaptive computing solutions, and help AMD in the foreseeable $135 billion cloud computing, More share in the edge computing and smart devices market opportunity.
According to the data, AMD was incorporated in the United States in 1969 and is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). Founded in 1984, Xilinx is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of programmable gate arrays (FPGA).
AMD Announces Acquisition of Pensando
Acquirer: AMD
Acquisition amount: $1.9 billion
On April 5, 2022, AMD announced the acquisition of cloud service provider Pensando Systems for approximately US$1.9 billion in order to continue to expand its data center business. The acquisition has been completed in the second quarter of 2022.
Through this acquisition, AMD officially entered the DPU field. Combined with AMD’s previous acquisition of Xilinx, the world’s largest FPGA designer, for US$50 billion, AMD’s business has now fully covered CPU, GPU, FPGA, and DPU, and the layout of the entire cloud has been basically completed.
According to public information, Pensando was founded in 2017 by four former Cisco engineers. Pensando's products have been deployed on a large scale in cloud and enterprise customers, including Goldman Sachs, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud.
Pensando's main product is "Distributed Service Card" (DSC), which is a very popular DPU data processor at present. It is similar to SmartNIC but has a computing core. The card integrates high-speed network interface, P4 programmable chip, ARM CPU, Memory controllers, acceleration chips for encryption and storage, PCIe 4.0, etc., are operated by TSMC's 7nm process technology.
Intel Announces Acquisition of Tower Semiconductor
Buyer: Intel
Acquisition amount: US$5.4 billion
In February 2022, Intel announced that it would acquire the Israeli chip company High Tower Semiconductor for US$53 per share in cash. The total transaction amount is approximately US$5.4 billion, and it is expected that the entire transaction will be completed within 12 months. The acquisition is currently in progress. middle.
On April 25 of the same year, High Tower Semiconductor issued a press release stating that at the extraordinary general meeting, the company’s shareholders approved the merger with Intel. The transaction is still subject to certain regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
According to the data, Gaota Semiconductor is a well-known foundry for analog semiconductor solutions. The semiconductors and circuits it produces are widely used in automobiles, consumer products, medical and industrial equipment and other fields. A total of 7 factories have been established in Israel, the United States and Japan, and the overall 12-inch equivalent production capacity accounts for about 3% of the world. Among them, 8-inch production capacity is more, accounting for about 6.2% of the global 8-inch production capacity.
TrendForce, a global market research organization, predicts that after the official integration of Intel's foundry business with Gaota, it will help Intel expand its development in the fields of smartphones, industry, and automotive, and Intel will also officially enter the top ten wafer foundries ranking.
MaxLinear Announces Acquisition of Silicon Motion Technology
Acquirer: MaxLinear
Acquisition amount: $3.8 billion
In early May 2022, Huirong Technology and MaxLinear jointly announced that MaxLinear will acquire Huirong Technology through a cash and stock transaction at a price of US$3.8 billion. Upon completion of the transaction, MaxLinear shareholders will own approximately 86 percent of the combined company, and Silicon Motion shareholders will own approximately 14 percent of the combined company. Silicon Motion said the deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023.
MaxLinear is a well-known supplier of radio frequency, analog, digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits, products include cable broadband modems and gateways, cable connection equipment, radio frequency transceivers, fiber optic modules, video set-top boxes and gateways, analog and digital hybrid TV, direct broadcast satellite Outdoor and indoor units as well as power management and interface products.
Silicon Motion Technology is a world-renowned supplier of NAND Flash control chips and a leading manufacturer in the field of SSD control chips. Its products cover multiple business fields such as data centers, PCs, smart phones, and industrial application SSDs. In the past ten years, Silicon Motion's NAND control chip shipments have exceeded 6 billion units, and it supports various flash memories produced by Intel, Kioxia, Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, Western Digital and other manufacturers.
Broadcom Announces Acquisition of Cloud Computing Vendor VMware
Acquirer: Broadcom
Acquisition Amount: $61 billion
In May 2022, Broadcom announced the acquisition of VMware for US$61 billion. The acquisition covers three major themes, namely multi-cloud (Multi-Cloud), cloud-native software development, and pricing. The addition of VMware in the future will provide a set of software and hardware solutions. Meet enterprise cloud needs.
It is reported that the merger is one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the technology industry, second only to Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and Dell's $67 billion acquisition of EMC in 2016.
Founded in 1998, VMware is a global provider of cloud infrastructure and mobile business solutions. With virtualization technology, it gradually opens up the market in the enterprise IT field. In 2003, VMware was acquired by EMC (now Dell EMC) for $625 million and went public in 2007. In November 2021, VMware spun off from Dell to become an independent company again.
At present, the merger is still in progress, and the European Commission will make a decision on the merger before May 2023.
Diodes Acquires ON Semiconductor Fab in Maine
Buyer: Diodes
Acquisition Amount: Unknown
In June 2022, Diodes Incorporated announced that it had completed the acquisition of ON Semiconductor's wafer fabrication facility and operator in South Portland, Maine (SPFAB). Prior to February, ON Semiconductor announced the divestment of its South Portland wafer fabrication plant in the United States.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Diodes will integrate the South Portland facility and plant operations, including the transfer of SPFAB's employees to Diodes. As part of the multi-year wafer supply agreement, Diodes will continue to manufacture ON Semiconductor products at SPFAB, as ON Semiconductor needs to transfer products to other fabs for production.
Diodes plans to leverage SPFAB's facility qualifications and processes for manufacturing CMOS and BiCMOS to support multiple analog product lines, including power management ICs, signal chain and standard products, as well as multiple high-performance discrete product lines.
Intergrid successfully acquires CMC Materials
Acquirer: Integrity
Acquisition amount: US$5.7 billion
On July 6, 2022 local time, American semiconductor material manufacturer Entegris (Integris) officially announced the completion of the acquisition of its competitor CMC Materials. With the completion of the transaction, CMC Materials also became a wholly owned subsidiary of Entegris.
According to the data, Intergrid mainly provides special chemicals and advanced material processing solutions for semiconductor and other high-tech industries. It is a supplier of TSMC, Intel, Samsung, Kioxia and SK Hynix and other international manufacturers. occupies a pivotal position in the chain.
CMC Materials is also a leading global supplier of consumables mainly to semiconductor manufacturers. The company's products play an important role in the production of advanced semiconductor devices, helping customers create smaller, faster and more complex devices.
SK hynix completes acquisition of Key Foundry
Acquirer: SK Hynix
Acquisition amount: $460 million
On August 2, 2022, SK Hynix announced that it has completed the acquisition of Key Foundry, an 8-inch wafer foundry in South Korea.
In October 2021, SK Hynix announced that it will acquire 100% of Key Foundry for 576 billion won (about 460 million U.S. dollars). In the first half of 2022, the transaction received approval from antitrust regulators in China and South Korea.
According to the data, Key Foundry became independent from MagnaChip Semiconductor Company in September 2020, with a monthly production capacity of 82,000 8-inch wafers, mainly engaged in power management IC (PMIC), panel driver chip (DDI), microcontroller (MCU) ), etc., in 2021, Key Foundry sales will reach 616 billion won.
As a world-renowned memory manufacturer, SK hynix has been actively promoting the expansion of its foundry business in recent years, and has split its wafer foundry business into an independent business entity. Currently, its subsidiary SK hynix System IC is responsible for its foundry business. . SK Hynix previously said the acquisition would double its current 8-inch foundry capacity.
Japanese Fund Plans to Acquire ON Semiconductor's Japanese Chip Factory
Acquirer: Japanese Fund
Acquisition amount: $135 million
In October 2022, Japanese media reported that a Japanese fund supported by the Development Bank of Japan and Itochu Corporation plans to acquire a chip factory owned by ON Semiconductor, with an acquisition amount of more than 20 billion yen (about 135 million U.S. dollars).
It is reported that the target factory is located in Niigata, Japan, which has passed the automotive quality certification and complies with the requirements of IATF 16949 (global quality control industry standard). Currently, ON Semiconductor mainly produces BCD, BiCMOS, CMOS and semiconductor discrete devices at the Niigata factory.
Back in August 2020, ON Semiconductor announced that it was considering selling its Niigata factory in Japan. The sale of the Niigata plant is part of a restructuring plan to optimize its manufacturing base and focus more on highly differentiated power supply-related electronic components and sensor products, the company said.
Nexperia completes acquisition of Nowi
Acquirer: Nexperia Semiconductors
Acquisition Amount: Unknown
Nexperia, a subsidiary of Wingtech Technology, issued a press release stating that it has completed the acquisition of Nowi, a Dutch semiconductor company, on November 11, 2022. The acquisition will complement Nexperia's existing power management chip field.
According to the data, Nowi was established in 2016. Its main product is an energy harvesting power management chip, which can effectively manage the weak energy collected from the environment and provide energy support for IoT sensors, electronic tags, smart bracelets and other scenarios. Nowi's PMIC combines ultra-small PCB package, ultra-low BOM cost, and excellent average acquisition performance.
Nexperia Semiconductor is a world-renowned discrete and power chip IDM manufacturer and one of the world-renowned automotive semiconductor companies. It was officially acquired by Wingtech Technology in 2019. Statistics show that in 2021, Nexperia will rank among the sixth largest power semiconductor companies in the world, up three places compared to 2020.
Regarding this acquisition, Dan Jensen, general manager of Nexperia Semiconductor's analog and logic IC business unit, said that the acquisition of Nowi is an investment with important strategic significance, because energy harvesting perfectly complements Nexperia Semiconductor's existing power management capabilities, and the decision This means that Nexperia can now provide customers with sustainable battery alternatives for their products, helping them get to market quickly.
