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Chipmaker Intersil Corp. late Thursday proved that analog chip engineers still command a hefty price. The company announced it would buy Planet ATE Inc., a tiny maker of semiconductors used in equipment that tests newly minted integrated circuits, for $46 million up-front and a potential $12 earnout. Tech Confidential spoke Tuesday morning with David Zinsner, Intersil's chief financial officer and...

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Five years ago, Intel Corp. general manager Randy Smerik thought he had developed a chip design idea far enough ahead of its time to warrant the formation of a new company. He and a small group of Intel engineers had come up with a novel way to enable network equipment to analyze high-speed data, a critical feature for network...

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Many chief executives of chip equipment companies have reputations as prima donnas whose outsized egos hinder consolidation in an industry that badly needs it. Take Brooks Automation Inc. and Helix Technology Corp. The companies' respective former CEOs, Robert Therrien and Robert Lepofsky, had talked of merging for years, but couldn't agree on who would lead the company. Brooks finally...

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Chipmaker Virage Logic Corp. stuck a tentative toe into the M&A pool Monday, announcing an agreement to buy intellectual property and design services provider Ingot Systems Inc. No terms were announced, but the deal is sure to pay off for the four-year-old startup's founders and 30 employees. Ingot co-founder, president and CEO Jai Iyer tells Tech Confidential in an e-mail...

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German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG on Monday said it would reduce its stake in its memory manufacturing spinout to below 50% by 2009. Infineon spun out Qimonda in an initial public offering  in August 2006, and it holds an 86% stake in the dynamic random access memory maker. The DRAM market is highly volatile, and shareholders had pressed Infineon to distance...

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Another special purpose acquisition company has grabbed a semiconductor firm. Ascend Acquisition Corp., which raised $38.5 million in an IPO in May, said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire ePak Resources Pte. Ltd., a maker of chip handling equipment for semiconductor makers. SPACs, also known as "blank check" companies, are founded without an operating business. Once they go public,...

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Semiconductor maker Entropic Communications Inc. has filed to raise $100 million through an initial public offering. It's the latest in a series of technology companies hoping to hit up the public markets and is backed by several well known investors such as Intel Capital, Cisco Systems Inc. and Motorola Inc. Venture firms CMEA Ventures (12.7%),  Redpoint Ventures (10.3%), Focus Ventures...

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Dealmakers are split on the merits of acquiring business units rather than whole companies. When it comes to corporate carveouts, you either love 'em or hate 'em. Tech Con spoke Wednesday afternoon with Richard Grubb, chief financial officer of chipmaker Vishay Intertechnology Inc., and he's one who prefers acquiring companies in whole rather than in pieces. "Carveouts are difficult,...

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Much has been made of the troubles at Motorola Inc., but there's another victim hurt by its lack of a WOW handset its former chip division, Freescale Semiconductor Holdings I Ltd. The chip firm reported second-quarter net sales Thursday of $1.38 billion, down from $1.6 billion the previous year. Michel Mayer, chairman and CEO, acknowledges, “The continued weakness in unit...

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The last time the window for initial public offerings was wide open, chipmaker Intellon tried — and failed — to squinch through. But with revenue and profit thresholds dropping for companies seeking to go public, Intellon is gearing up for a second try. The company, which makes chips that enable broadband over power lines, filed last week to raise...

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