Top 10 mergers and acquisitions in the electronics industry in 2012

Despite the poor economic situation, there were several notable mergers and acquisitions in the semiconductor/electronics industry in 2012; From these cases, we can see the evolution trend and future development direction of mainstream technology in the industry.

 

One of the ongoing sales of microprocessor core supplier MIPS was announced in November to be sold in two parts, with Imagination Technologies paying $60 million for business operations and a patent portfolio for $350 million to Bridge Crossing, an ARM-led investment alliance; But two weeks later, DSP core supplier CEVA bid $75 million higher for MIPS, and a few days ago Imagination said it would raise the price to $80 million. You come and go, and it remains to be seen who will end up with MIPS.

In the field of mixed-signal and RF technology, GPS and wireless chip supplier U-blox acquired Cognovo, a start-up IC designer, for $16.5 million, and 4M Wireless for $9 million; U-blox bought these two companies because they are optimistic about their expertise in 3GPP LTE technology. The other notable M&A cases are listed below (in no particular order):