Notable Semiconductor Mergers & Acquisitions in 2022

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been long used by businesses as a strategy to strengthen, expand and reduce costs. 

Since 2020 there has been a surge of semiconductor M&As for reasons such as technology, capacity and resource expansion, geo-diversification, and resiliency planning. Increasingly, companies are looking at M&As as a way to acquire not only the technology and knowledge base but the human capital, talent, and expertise they need in growth areas such as AI. 

In 2021 smaller M&A deals become more prominent, and new innovative companies were bought out and absorbed by larger semiconductor companies for them to be able to maintain their growth trajectory. This trend continued in 2022, especially in the second half of the year.

Some notable semiconductor M&As in 2022, some of which are due to close in 2023 are listed below.

2022 Notable Semiconductor Mergers and Acquisitions

Advanced Micro Devices - Xilinx

AMD announces the acquisition of Xilinx to expand AMD’s portfolio in graphics and adaptive SoC products making AMD the new industry leader for high-performance and adaptive computing.

Allegro MicroSystems – Heyday Integrated Circuits

Allegro MicroSystems has acquired Heyday Integrated Circuits, a privately held company specialized in cutting-edge gate drive solutions that enable energy conversion in high-voltage gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) wide-bandgap (WBG) semiconductor designs.

Diodes Incorporated - onsemi

Diodes Incorporated acquired onsemi’s South Portland, Maine wafer fabrication facility to help accelerate their growth initiatives in the automotive and industrial end markets and to add 200mm wafer fab capacity for analog products.

Intel Corporation - Tower Semiconductor

Intel is acquiring Tower Semiconductor to help expand Intel’s manufacturing capacity, global footprint, and technology portfolio to address unprecedented industry demand. Tower operates a total of seven production sites across Israel, the US, and Japan. The company’s foundry capacity in 12-inch wafer equivalents accounts for about 3% of the global total. 

Intel also acquired Siru, an expert in APIs such as Vulkan, OpenGL, and DirectX, as well as in the development and implementation of new architectures for GPUs and to development of Arc series graphics cards for gamers. (remove)

KYOCERA AVX - ROHM

KYOCERA AVX, a leading global manufacturer of advanced electronic components is acquiring ROHM Semiconductor’s tantalum and polymer capacitor business, including all of its tantalum and polymer capacitor manufacturing lines and relevant intellectual property.

MaxLinear – Silicon Motion

California-based MaxLinear announced an agreement to buy Silicon Motion in Taiwan. This acquisition is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023 and will add controller ICs for NAND flash storage to MaxLinear’s lineup of RF and mixed-signal products.

Micross Components – PAAL Technologies

Micross Components, a leading provider of high-reliability microelectronic product and service solutions for aerospace, defense, and other applications has announced the acquisition of PAAL Technologies, a leading provider of MIL-STD-1553 Data Bus Couplers, Harnesses, and RF/Wideband Transformers. The acquisition further expands the Hi-Rel Components portfolio of Micross, while providing customers of PAAL with single-source access to the most complete offering of end-to-end advanced microelectronic services and component, die, and wafer solutions.

Navitas Semiconductor - GeneSiC

Navitas acquires GeneSiC a provider and developer of Silicon Carbide and Silicon-based high power semiconductor products helping Navitas diversify towards higher-performance products.

Nexperia – Nowi Energy

Nexperia announces the broadening of its portfolio of power management products through the acquisition of Netherlands-based Nowi Energy. Nowi’s technology allows energy harvested from light, radio waves, or temperature gradients to be used in low-power applications like smart wearables and autonomous wireless sensor nodes. The manufacturing capacity and capability of Nexperia as well as its global infrastructure will ensure that together, Nowi will be able to speed the production of these solutions enabling higher volume production and shipping by the end of 2022 and early 2023.

Nordic Semiconductor – Mobile Semiconductor

Nordic Semiconductor is to acquire Mobile Semiconductor to bring specialized embedded memory technology for microcontrollers and Systems-on-Chips in-house. 

Renesas Electronics - Steradian

Renesas, a supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, completed the acquisition of Steradian Semiconductors a privately owned fabless semiconductor radar solutions company headquartered in Bengaluru, India. The combination of Steradian's leading-edge radar technology and engineering talent will boost Renesas’ sensing solution offerings in a wide array of applications that will simplify the design of automotive radar systems.

Vishay Intertechnology - MaxPower

Vishay acquired MaxPower Semiconductor a California-based fabless power semiconductor provider with a substantial IP portfolio of over 100 patents. Maxpower’s proprietary device structures and process techniques provide leading-edge silicon and SiC MOSFET products will be incorporated into Vishay’s MOSFETs portfolio.

In Conclusion

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have been long used by businesses as a strategy to build a capacity, technology knowledge base, talent, and expertise. A recent trend has been towards acquisitions of new innovative companies being absorbed by larger semiconductor companies. 

Once mergers and acquisitions transpire, consolidation, PCNs, and EOLs occur which can be a double-edged sword. Consolidation can mean superior and cohesive product offerings by one company, making sourcing, system design, and component integration easier for OEMs. On the other hand, this trend can lead to less competition and consumer choices as more market share is controlled by fewer players. 

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