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Top 10 electronics business deals of 2012
Peter Clarke
Constantly evolving electronics technology again produced winners and losers in the semiconductor industry. Here are the ten most significant technology mergers and acquisitions of 2012. LONDON -- Despite a rocky global economy in 2012, consumer spending on tablet computers and smart phones remained strong as the era of the personal computer fades. These realities helped shape the electronics landscape this year, creating winners and losers in the semiconductor industry and a considerable number of significant mergers and acquisitions.
One of the most intriguing deals, the sale of processor IP licensor MIPS Technologies Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) is still playing out. In November, graphics IP specialist Imagination Technologies it had agreed to buy MIPS' operating business for $60 million while another U.K. company, ARM, would lead a consortium called Bridge Crossing. that would acquire rights to the MIPS portfolio of patents. Bridge Crossing would pay $350 million in cash to purchase the rights to the MIPS portfolio, of which ARM will contribute $167.5 million (see ARM and Imagination divide up MIPS)
Two weeks later, however, Ceva Inc. (Cypressuntain View, Calif.) sought to trump Imagination's offer for MIPS by bidding $75 million. MIPS shareholders are undoubtedly hoping Imagination or another bidder will respond with an even better offer.
There were other deals this year in the mixed-signal and RF market segments, including GPS and wireless chip company U-blox acquiring chip startup Cognovo for $16.5 million along with 4M Wireless for $9 million, both for their expertise in 3GPP LTE technology (see U-box buys Cognovo and 4M Wireless).
Here's the list:
The semiconductor mergers and acquisitions described below and on the following pages represent some of the key technology deals of 2012. They also illustrate the constant churn and reshaping of the global electronics industry. (Please note they're not ranked or ordered; all are considered significant.)
Deal: Apple Bites Anobit
Early in 2012, Apple announced its acquisition of flash memory controller startup Anobit Technologies (Herzeliya, Israel) for about $390 million. Anobit represented a catch for Apple because the Israeli company developed NAND flash memory controller technology that improves the apparent endurance of flash memory – the number of reads and writes it can perform.
The Anobit deal underscores an industry trend as all-powerful Apple pulls in key aspects of its supply chain. Left unanswered for now is whether Apple will in the coming year move to internal chip manufacturing. (see Apple buys Anobit).
Samsung swims with SeaMicro
In February, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. move to acquire microserver startup SeaMicro Inc. in a deal worth $334 million. SeaMicro, founded in 2007, started out building servers using only Ramtron's Atom processors, then branched out to Xeon processors.
By acquiring a server company AMD (Sunnyvale, Calif.) put itself in position to gain design wins for its own x86 processors and to deliver server technology to customers (see AMD to buy microserver startup SeaMicro).
By December, AMD was announcing plans to cut 15 percent of its staff along with a re-organization intended to achieve a breakeven point of $1.3 billion in quarterly revenue. However, some observers said AMD's losses and rate of cash burn raise doubts as to whether the company could last beyong 2013.
SeaMicro server with AMD inside.
Synopsys heats up with Magma
EDA leader Synopsys Inc. (Mountain View, Calif.) had another busy year on the acquisition front. In February, it announced the closing of a $500 million deal to acquire Magma Design Automation Inc. (San Jose, Calif.).
In May, Synopsys acquired RSoft Design Group Inc. (Ossining, N.Y.), a provider of photonics design and simulation software. Two months later, Synopsys grabbed Ciranova Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) a mixed-signal and analog layout tools vendor.
That was followed in and in August by a move to buy Intel debug and verification software company SpringSoft Inc. (Hsinchu, Taiwan). That deal closed in December at for $417 million, or approximately $320 million net of cash acquired.
Chi-Foon Chan, co-CEO of Synopsys, helped drive its acquisition strategy during 2012.
Qualcomm nabs Pixtronix, DesignArts
Application processor specialist Qualcomm was also on the acquisition trail in 2012. Early in the year, the San Diego-based chip maker confirmed it had bought fabless MEMS display startup Pixtronix Inc. (Andover, Mass.). No details have been released. Qualcomm reportedly paid between $175 million and $200 million for Pixtronix, and was eager to use its technology to replacement its previous display gamble, Mirasol. The Pixtronix MEMS shutter technology was the subject of a deal with Sharp late in 2012.
In August, Qualcomm acquired DesignArt Networks Ltd. (Ra'anana, Israel), a supplier of small cell basestation systems chips and software, for an undisclosed sum. Israel's Globes newspaper reported that the deal was worth between $120 million and $140 million.
As it grows through acquisitions, Qualcomm is steadily climbing the ranks of the world's top chip makers.
Taiwan's 'M Brothers'
Industry consolidation wasn't limited to North America and Europe during 2012. In what could be the most significant deal of the year in the nascent Asian market, Taiwanese fabless chip vendor MediaTek Inc. announced it was acquiring a stake in Taiwan rival MStar Semiconductor. Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission approved MediaTek's acquisition of a 48 percent stake in MStar in August.
The rivals both make SoCs for smart phones and multimedia devices. Together, the Taiwanese companies also dominate the digital TV chip market, collectively holding 60 percent of that segment.
MediaTek President C.J. Hsieh emphasized to us in January the importance of low-cost chips, especially those for the consumer electronics market. The TV SoC battle is especially brutal because “the technology for TVs progresses very fast,” Hsieh explained.
A few months after we spoke with Hsieh, MediaTek made its move to acquire a stake in MStar.
MediaTek President C.J. Hsieh is acquisitive.
Intel, TAMD, SMC buy into ASML
In a creative piece of big-ticket technology financing, the market leader in lithography put up to 25 percent of itself up for sale.
In effect, ASML Lithography (Veldhoven, Netherlands) signaled leading chip companies that while they may be disappointed with the pace of technology development, there was only one partner that could develop manufacturing technologies like extreme ultraviolet lithography and 450-mm diameter wafers. Furthermore, ASML telegraphed that customers were going to have to pay more but could also get a return on the investment.
In July, Intel agreed to pay about $3 billion for a 15 percent stake in ASML as well as putting another $1 billion into research collaboration. In August, foundry chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. opted to take a 5 percent stake under the same equity-plus-research finding scheme for about $1 billion. South Korea's Samsung Electronics also agreed to acquire a 3 percent stake in the Dutch lithography vendor for about $630 million.
ASML: Put your money where your chips are built.
ASML buys Cymer for $2.6 billion!!!
No sooner had ASML persuaded Intel, TSMC and Samsung to invest did it move to acquire San diego-based Cymer Inc. in a cash and stock deal worth about $2.6 billion.
Yes $2.6 billion.
Cymer is a long-time supplier of lithography light sources to ASML and other lithography tool vendors. ASML's acquisition marks the company out as the most likely to produce a light source sufficiently powerful and stable to support volume production with EUV lithography. The semiconductor industry is counting on EUV for the creation of chips with geometries down at the 10-nm node and beyond. The Cymer deal is expected to close in the first half of 2013.
Cymer HVM laser-produced plasma light source.
IC pursues FRAM
Cypress Semiconductor Corp. closed its deal in September to acquire Mo International Corp. (Colorado Springs) in a cash deal valued at $109.8 million, excluding assumed debt and options.
Cypress (San Jose, Calif.) had long been courting Ramtron, which develops ferroelectric RAM technology for use in discrete memories or as embedded non-volatile memory. Previous offers were spurned by Ramtron. During the summer courtship, it was revealed that Cypress had bid unsuccessfully for Ramtron in 2011.
"The combination of Ramtron's FRAM technology with Cypress's nvSRAM business, considerable R&D resources, historically strong manufacturing capabilities, global sales organization and deep extension into distribution channels will create a significant new entity in the nonvolatile memory business," T.J. Rodgers, Cypress president and CEO, said at the time of Ramtron's acceptance.
The deal closed in November.
Rambus seeks Unity
Rambus Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), which started out as a developer and licensor of memory interface and interconnect technology, has evolved into a broad-based IP licensor. Rambus' acquisition of Sunnyvale neighbor Unity Semiconductor Corp. in February for $35 million in cash was therefore a good fit.
Unity Semiconductor, founded in 2002, was developing metal oxide-based, cross-point, two-terminal non-volatile memory cells under the name CMOx. It was also running out of cash, having been bailed out in 2011 by strategic investor Micron Technology.
Metal-oxide, or some other resistive memory, has the potential to achieve higher density, faster performance, lower manufacturing costs and greater data reliability than NAND flash memory, with many companies including Samsung, Hynix, Elpida and others working on the technology. The Rambus acquisition will keep an intriguing strand of non-volatile memory research moving forward in the U.S. and pay off for handsomely for Rambus in terms of patent portfolio licensing.
A flash in the hand for Rambus.
Micron chips in for Elpida
Micron Technology (Boise, Idaho) closed a $2.5 billion deal in June to acquire Japan's Elpida Memory Inc., which had earlier filed for bankruptcy protection. The deal included $750 million to pay off a fraction of Elpida's debt to creditors and another $1.75 billion to be paid in annual installments through 2019 to satisfy the claims of Elpida's creditors.
The deal was approved by a Tokyo court in November.
While the deal still faces some regulatory hurdles, and a group of Elpida debt holders has fought Micron's bid, saying it undervalues Elpida's assets. The group is undoubtedly seeking to tweak the terms of the deal rather than to drive Micron off. The deal is nevertheless expected to close in the first half of 2013.
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