At present, under the global semiconductor countercurrent, the manufacturers are still continuing to lay out the next step. From the perspective of acquisition, the big semiconductor manufacturers such as Broadcom, Rom, Qualcomm, Cadence are constantly expanding their camp and strengthening the Moat.

Among them, the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom for $69 billion was approved by the European Commission, which is currently the largest acquisition in the global chip industry; Rom and Solar Frontier reached a basic agreement to acquire the assets of the company's former Guofu factory and expand the production of SiC power devices; Qualcomm announced its acquisition of Autotalks, an Israeli automotive communication chip manufacturer, to strengthen its product portfolio and deepen its automotive business. Recently, there have been several new developments in semiconductor acquisition cases.

Cadence is proud to receive two consecutive payments

On July 20th local time, EDA company Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and chip designer Rambus Inc. announced that they had reached a final agreement on Cadence's acquisition of Rambus SerDes and memory interface PHY IP business.

According to the agreement, Rambus will retain its digital IP business, including storage and interface controllers, as well as secure IP, after the acquisition is completed. The expected acquisition of technology assets will also bring proven and experienced PHY engineering teams to Cadence in the United States, India, and Canada, further expanding the rich talent base in the Cadence field.

Cadence expects that this transaction will have little impact on each company's revenue and profitability this year and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2023, subject to certain transaction conditions.

On July 15, Cadence announced that it had completed the acquisition of semiconductor design company Pulsic, further expanding its Multiphysics simulation system analysis and Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) product portfolio.

According to data, Cadence was established in 1988 and was formed by the merger of ECAD Systems and SDA Systems. Currently, it has become one of the world's leading EDA companies. Among the two companies acquired, Rambus was established in 1990 as a technology licensing company specializing in the invention and design of high-speed chip interfaces; Pulsic, an EDA software company with a history of more than 20 years, has provided successful streaming for IDM and fabless customers in the global storage, FPGA, custom digital, LCD, imaging and AMS markets. The company is headquartered in Bristol, UK.

Memory and SerDes IP design and integration remain an indispensable part of artificial intelligence, data centers, and large-scale applications, CPU architecture, and network device design. In recent years, the accelerated development of artificial intelligence and the continuous growth of data centers are driving a growing demand for memory and security.

Naxin Micro plans to acquire 33.63% equity of Kunteng Micro

On July 17, Suzhou Naxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "Company") announced that the Company signed an Intent Agreement on Share Purchase (hereinafter referred to as the "Intent Agreement") on the same day with 10 shareholders of Kunteng Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Kunteng Micro"), including JING CAO (Cao Jing) and Beijing Wuyuefeng Yihe High tech Industry Investment Partnership (Limited partnership), The company plans to acquire the 33.63% equity of Kunteng Micro held by the above-mentioned shareholders.

According to the official website, Nanochip Micro is a high-performance and highly reliable analog and mixed signal chip company. Since its establishment in 2013, the company has focused on sensors, signal chains, and power management, providing semiconductor products and solutions that can be widely applied in the fields of automotive, industrial, information communication, and consumer electronics.

Kunteng Microcheng was established on September 28, 2006, and its main business is the research and development, design and sales of Linear integrated circuit. The audio SoC chips mainly include wireless audio transmission chips, FM/AM transceiver chips, USB audio chips, etc., which are used in the field of consumer electronics; Signal chain chips mainly include analog-to-digital converters (ADC), analog-to-digital converters (DAC), and integrated data converters, mainly used in fields such as communication and industrial control.

Kuntengwei's products have entered many terminal brand manufacturers including JBL, Philips, Shanshui Audio, Singbar, Tesla, BYD, Li Auto, Wanlida, Lvlian, Innovation, Audio-Technica, TCL, Edifier, Huiwei, Skyworth, Hisense, Konka, Changhong, Lenovo, Shiyuan, Maple flute, etc.

Regarding the impact of this acquisition, Naxin Micro stated that the stock acquisition will help enrich the company's relevant technology and IP reserves. Kunteng's micro products and the company's existing IP portfolio can form a good complement, further improving the company's technical IP portfolio, expanding the possibility of developing new products in areas such as wireless connectivity, universal signal chain, and audio solutions, and enhancing the company's ability to develop more categories around customers and meet more needs in strategic markets such as automobiles and pan energy.

Rom plans to jointly acquire Toshiba for $2.16 billion

According to a report by Nikkei Asia, Japanese chip manufacturer Roma will provide a total of 300 billion yen (approximately 2.16 billion US dollars) in funds to a consortium led by private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) for the proposed acquisition of Toshiba.

It is understood that Rom stated at a recent board meeting that if the tender offer is successful, he will invest 100 billion yen in the investment fund led by JIP, and will also purchase 200 billion yen preferred shares issued by affiliated companies established for the acquisition.

Both Rom and Toshiba produce power semiconductor devices, which help reduce the power consumption of electric vehicles, appliances, and other products. Rom revealed that his goal is to occupy 30% of the global market share of silicon carbide power devices in the fiscal year 2025.

Rom stated that there is no agreement with JIP or other companies regarding cooperation or participation in Toshiba management, but his business is highly compatible with Toshiba's semiconductor business, and he looks forward to future collaborations.

Litteluse plans to acquire Elmos wafer factory

According to recent reports from foreign media, Fabless company Elmos has agreed to sell the wafer factory for a net purchase price of approximately 93 million euros.

According to the agreement, Littelfuse will acquire the Dortmund wafer factory and its technical team of about 225 employees. All other activities, including testing operations, will be handled by Elmos.

Through the acquisition of the Dortmund wafer factory, Littelfuse has enhanced its capacity in power semiconductors, which is suitable for high growth power conversion applications such as renewable energy, energy storage and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

Currently, Litteluse operates in over 20 countries/regions and has approximately 18000 employees worldwide. In Germany, Litteluse operates multiple manufacturing, sales, and research and development bases.

According to reports, the delivery of the transaction is expected to take effect on December 31, 2024, and certain delivery conditions and regulatory approvals must be met. Elmos will retain full operational control of the wafer factory until the transaction is completed.

In addition, it is revealed that Elmos and Litteluse have agreed to a clear multi-year capacity sharing arrangement, with an initial period lasting until 2029, for Elmos to purchase a certain number of wafers produced by the wafer factory.

Xingsen Technology acquires Yifei Electronics

On July 19th, Xingsen Technology announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Guangzhou Xingsen Investment Co., Ltd. had acquired Yifei Electronics (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Beijing Yifei Electric) held by Yifei Electric Co., Ltd. The acquisition has been completed, and the original Beijing Yifei Electric has been renamed Beijing Xingfei Electronics Co., Ltd., becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xingsen Technology.

In response to this transaction, Xingsen Technology stated that it will help the company achieve a certain degree of reinforcement in terms of products and technology, enhance the company's business scale, and build new profit growth points, which is in line with the company's long-term strategic plan. At the same time, it will help Xingsen Technology enter the high-end smartphone market and is expected to open up cooperation space between the company's CSP packaging substrate and FCBGA packaging substrate businesses and top consumer electronics industry customers.

Through years of R&D investment and accumulation, Xingsen Technology has expanded from the field of traditional PCB to the field of semiconductor ATE test board and Integrated circuit packaging substrate. It has achieved stable mass production of Integrated circuit packaging substrate FCBOC, FCCSP and other products, and has established stable cooperation relationships with domestic and foreign mainstream memory chips, application processor chips, radio frequency chips, sensor chips.

In recent years, high-end mobile phone chips have gradually evolved towards miniaturization, multifunctional, and high integration. With the continuous increase in the number of functional component modules, the motherboard shows a trend of expanding in size and increasing in layers. It is expected that mainstream mobile phone brand flagship models will adopt more mSAP technology class motherboards to adapt to the development trend of "short, small, and thin".