Top 10 M&A cases in the electronics industry in 2012

Despite the poor economic situation, semiconductors in 2012 /Electronics industryThere are still several notable mergers and acquisitions of manufacturers; From these cases, we can see the evolution trend and future development direction of mainstream technology in the industry.

 

One of the more ongoing is a supplier of microprocessor coresMIPS, which announced in November that it would be sold in two parts, with operations acquired by Imagination Technologies for $60 million and its patent portfolio sold to Bridge Crossing, a leading investment alliance in the industry, for $350 million. But two weeks later, CEVA, the core supplier of DSP, bid more than $75 million for MIPS, and a few days ago Imagination again 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 mixed-signal and RF technologies, GPS and wireless chip supplier U-blox acquired start-up IC designer Cognovo for $16.5 million and 4M Wireless for $9 million. U-blox bought the two companies because they were bullish on their expertise in 3GPP LTE technology. A few other notable M&A cases are listed below (in no particular order):