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More than two dozen acquisition agreements were announced by semiconductor companies worldwide in 2016, with a combined value of US$98.5 billion compared to the record-high of US$103.3 billion in purchases struck in 2015, when over 30 deals were reached, according to IC Insights.
The US dollar value of merger and acquisition agreements in 2015 and 2016 were both about eight times greater than the US$12.6 billion annual average of M&A announcements in the five previous years (2010-2014), said IC Insights. Nearly half of the 15 largest semiconductor acquisitions in history were announced in the 2015-2016 period. A total of 27 semiconductor acquisition agreements have had dollar values of US$2 billion or more since 1999, IC Insights indicated.
Overall, seven of the semiconductor industry’s US$2 billion-plus acquisitions occurred in 2015 and five took place in 2016, with three each being announced in 2014, 2011 and 2006, two in 2012, and one each in 2013, 2009, 2000 and 1999. Semiconductor M&A greatly accelerated in 2015 and continued to be high in 2016, as companies turned to acquisitions to offset slow growth in major end-use applications (such as smartphones, personal computers and tablets), IC Insights identified.
In the last two years, acquisitions have been driven by companies aiming to expand into huge new markets, especially the Internet of Things, wearable electronics, and highly intelligent embedded systems, such as automated driver-assist features in cars and autonomous vehicles in the future. China’s goal of boosting its domestic semiconductor industry has added fuel to the M&A movement, IC Insights noted.
While Chinese moves to buy foreign semiconductor suppliers and assets grabbed a great deal of attention and scrutiny by governments wanting to protect national security and industries, US businesses acquiring other companies, product lines, technologies and assets accounted for 52% of the 2015-2016 M&A value, or about US$104.5 billion. Asia-Pacific companies were second among those making semiconductor acquisitions with 23% of the US$201.5 billion two-year total, or US$46.4 billion. Within the Asia-Pacific region, China represented 4% of the total, or US$8.3 billion, according to IC Insights.
The 2015-2016 acquisition agreements by semiconductor business types with the purchase of IDMs or parts of those companies accounted for nearly 39% of the two-year total, while takeovers of fabless chip suppliers, their product lines, and/or assets represented 45%. Acquisitions of semiconductor-design intellectual property suppliers and IP assets accounted for nearly 16% of the 2015-2016 M&A value while purchase agreements for wafer-foundry businesses and assets represented just 0.2% of the total.
IC Insights’ ranking and acquisition data cover semiconductor suppliers, wafer foundries, and businesses licensing IP for integrated circuit designs, but excludes transactions for fab equipment and material companies, chip packaging and testing operations, and design automation firms.
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