M & a small year to see more! Inventory of several "latest" semiconductor mergers and acquisitions in 2021

Date：2022-01-21 15:48:00Views：908

The curtain came to an end in 2021. Generally speaking, last year was a small year for semiconductor M & A. according to the statistics of Jibang consulting, there was no M & A with a scale of more than US $10 billion last year, and several major M & a fluctuated around us $5-6 billion.

But a small year does not mean poverty. After the tide of M & A around 2016 subsided, the M & A of semiconductor enterprises mainly completed the business sector and laid out emerging markets. Now let's take stock of those mergers and acquisitions last year. In addition, what unfinished mergers and acquisitions deserve attention.

The most ambitious: ADI's acquisition of Meixin

On August 26, 2021, ADI officially merged Meixin. This transaction was announced in July 2020. After 13 months, it was approved by the antitrust authorities of all major countries in the world.

The reason why this transaction is "the most ambitious" is that the transaction volume of US $17 billion is one of the reasons, but it is fundamentally due to the industrial status of the two companies. According to IC insights, ADI and Meixin are the second and seventh largest analog IC manufacturers in the world in 2020, respectively. After the acquisition of Meixin, the gap between ADI and simulation boss Ti was further narrowed.

Most forward looking: ansenmey's acquisition of gtat

On August 26, 2021, ansenmey announced the acquisition of GT advanced technologies (gtat), a silicon carbide material (SIC) manufacturer, with us $412 million in cash. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of next year. Ansenmey plans to promote 150mm and 200mm silicon carbide crystal growth technology through gtat, while investing in a broader silicon carbide supply chain, including wafer plant capacity and packaging.

Ansenmey is a high-level M & a player in the IC industry. It is inseparable from frequent "small step and fast run" M & A to become a large simulation factory. At present, new energy vehicles drive compound semiconductors to become hot, and ansenmey will not let opportunities go. However, at present, the silicon carbide track is also crowded with competitors, including St, Infineon and Roma. In the future, the competition in this field will become a "Red Sea" rapidly.

Most cross-border: st's acquisition of cartesiam

On May 19, 2021, St announced the acquisition of French AI technology company cartesiam, and the transaction amount was not disclosed. As a chip giant, ST's acquisition of an AI enterprise is cross-border. Previously, Broadcom spent a lot of money to acquire two software companies, which is generally regarded as bad, but compared with Broadcom, ST's acquisition of cartesiam is persuasive.

According to st, the artificial network has been run in STM32 Series MCU. Adding cartesiam's machine learning technology to st's existing products can supplement the existing AI tool set and enhance the operation ability of neural network. As for whether the AI strength of St products has been enhanced, it depends on the market test.

Most slim: NVIDIA acquires arm

In September 2020, NVIDIA announced a $34 billion acquisition of arm. Due to major monopoly problems, chip enterprises have been strongly opposed, and have also been "targeted" by antitrust agencies in Britain, America and the European Union.

After a year of delay, NVIDIA and Softbank, the parent company of arm, are still facilitating the transaction, but the transaction has increasingly become a "thorn in the eye" of national regulators, with increasing resistance to promotion. With the March trading deadline approaching and the potential risk of core shortage, the probability that the transaction can be completed is getting lower and lower. It is not too much to say "the most slim".

Most regretful: Zhilu capital's acquisition of Magna semiconductor

In March 2021, South Korean display driver chip manufacturer Magna semiconductor announced that it agreed to be acquired by private equity company Zhilu capital for a total price of US $1.4 billion. Megner is the first manufacturer of 28 nm OLED display driver chips in the industry, with a current market share of more than 30%, second only to Samsung Electronics.

However, the acquisition failed due to the opposition of the US government. On December 14 last year, Magna announced that it had officially terminated the acquisition agreement with China Zhilu capital because it failed to obtain the approval of the U.S. Commission on foreign investment (CFIUS).

This time, the failure of Chinese foreign acquisition is lamentable. In recent years, Chinese investment has frequently encountered obstacles in going to sea, but there are also successful cases such as Wentai technology's acquisition of ANSYS semiconductor and Ziguang's acquisition of linxens.

In 2021, excluding the failure to acquire magna, the results of Chinese acquisition are commendable. In August, Anson semiconductor acquired NWF, a British wafer factory, in November, Zhilu capital acquired epak, the world's fourth largest semiconductor vehicle manufacturer, in December, Zhilu capital acquired four mainland factories of Taiwan series packaging and testing factory, rimoonlight, and Zhilu construction and broadcasting consortium participated in the reorganization of Ziguang.

Two major mergers and acquisitions are still in suspense

Last year, two major mergers and acquisitions were announced, but they were not completed on time because they were stuck in an antitrust review link. Whether they can be finally completed is still in suspense.

First, look at AMD's acquisition of xilinix, with a transaction volume of US $35 billion. The transaction was announced on October 27, 2020. By the end of last year, amd had not been approved by China's antitrust authorities. Previously, the two companies planned to complete the transaction by the end of last year, but now it can only be delayed until the first quarter of this year. Compared with NVIDIA's acquisition of arm, the monopoly problem involved in this transaction is not so serious, but due to the share and influence of Xilinx FPGA in the domestic market, amd may have to make more concessions to ensure the adoption of the M & A.

In addition, globegroup wafer acquired Germany's Silicon AG, with a transaction volume of US $5.3 billion. The transaction was announced on December 10, 2020 and is expected to be completed by the end of last year. The latest news is that the anti-monopoly review of countries around the world has passed, and now it is stuck on the side of the German Ministry of economy. The reason is still monopoly doubts. The acquisition of Shichuang is of great significance to global wafers. After the final completion, it can surpass Shenggao and become the second largest silicon wafer factory in the world after Xinyue. At present, the deal is only three weeks away from the deadline, and there is a suspense about whether it can be completed.

Will the two giants "accumulate and make little progress"?

The next focus of semiconductor M & A lies in how the two giants act. They all have huge cash reserves, and there were no major mergers and acquisitions before. Now, for certain reasons, they may start mergers and acquisitions.

First of all, Samsung has a cash reserve of $60 billion, which is enough to buy a semiconductor giant. Recently, it was reported that Samsung would acquire one of the car core manufacturers such as NXP and Infineon to enrich the strength of semiconductors. It is not difficult to foresee that once such a merger is launched, it will face severe antitrust review. Previously, Qualcomm's acquisition of NXP was also unsuccessful due to monopoly factors. The prospect of Samsung's large-scale M & A can only be said to be general.

Apple has a cash reserve of more than 220 billion US dollars and previously acquired some businesses such as Intel baseband department, GPU manufacturer imaging and dialog. Apple's acquisition of semiconductor enterprises is to pave the way for self-developed chips. It has been reported that Apple will conduct in-depth research on network video related chips, and may also obtain sufficient manpower and patents by acquiring some chip enterprises or their businesses.

Other IC industry mergers and acquisitions in 2021

Renesas acquired dialog, a power IC manufacturer, with us $5.9 billion

Renesas acquired celeno, a WiFi chip manufacturer, for $315 million

Skyworks acquired core's infrastructure and automotive business for us $2.75 billion

Marvell} acquired innovium, a network chip manufacturer, for $1.1 billion

Qorvo acquires silicon carbide device manufacturer unitedsic (the amount is not disclosed)

Qualcomm acquires veoneer, a self driving technology company, for $45

Sk Hynix acquired key foundry with us $492 million

Sk Hynix acquired Intel's Dalian flash memory plant and SSD business with us $9 billion

Texas Instruments acquired Meguiar 12 inch Lehi wafer factory for us $900 million

World advanced NT $905 million acquisition of Youda 8-inch l3b Wafer Factory

Infineon acquires electroplating technology company syntronixs Asia (amount not disclosed)