Fairchild Semiconductor Completes Acquisition
15 April 1999
Fairchild Semiconductor Completes the Acquisition of Samsung Electronics' Power Device Division
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--April 14, 1999--as the leading multi-market semiconductor supplier
Fairchild Semiconductor today announced it has successfully completed the acquisition of Samsung Electronics' Power Device Division, for approximately $450 million. The purchase gives Fairchild a complete line of Power Discrete devices and a broad line of industry standard analog components. Combined with the company's already extensive line of discrete products, the acquisition makes Fairchild a leading supplier of power components.
"This purchase significantly strengthens Fairchild's position in both the discrete and analog markets," says Kirk Pond, president and CEO of Fairchild. "Fairchild adds several hundred discrete products to our portfolio, as well as 90 of the top 100 standard analog products. In addition, a strong group of more than 200 power product and analog design engineers will bolster Fairchild's focus on bringing new products to market for our customers. This acquisition, our second in two years, greatly strengthens Fairchild's role as the leading global supplier of multi-market semiconductors."
The purchase includes all of the worldwide business and assets of the Power Device Division, including a high volume wafer fabrication plant in Bucheon, South Korea with approximately 1200 design, development and manufacturing employees, secured services for assembly and test operations, and worldwide sales and marketing personnel. Fairchild will continue to operate the Bucheon plant with its existing management.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. will become a major customer of Fairchild. "All of us at Fairchild look forward to a strong and continuing relationship with Samsung in our role as a major supplier to their businesses," said Pond.
"Samsung's Power Device business is a strategic purchase for Fairchild," says Pond. "It provides Fairchild with geographic balance, boosting our presence in Korea and the Asia Pacific region, which adds significantly to Fairchild's traditional market strength in the Americas and Europe. It also provides Fairchild with strong market balance, reinforcing our presence in the consumer and industrial segments, supporting our traditionally strong presence in the computer and telecommunications markets. Finally, it provides us with a complementary product line focused on high power discretes, supplementing our existing focus in the low power end of the spectrum. This strengthens our role as the world's only company focused exclusively on high performance multi-market semiconductors."
The Power Device business includes a broad portfolio of standard linear products, power switch devices, IGBT, high voltage DMOS, and high voltage bipolar products, small signal transistors, motor control ICs and power MOSFETS.
"All of us at Fairchild are particularly excited by the many products we will now bring to consumer appliance manufacturing and industrial markets. Fairchild semiconductors will become more prevalent in applications such as monitors, TVs, VCRs, DVDs and audio systems and, in the industrial manufacturing market, we will have a stronger presence through control ICs for motors, power factor corrections and power supplies, and lighting."
Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation (www.fairchildsemi.com) is making history as the world's only global company solely focused on designing, manufacturing and marketing high performance semiconductors for multiple end market uses. Fairchild's multi-market components are used in computer, telecommunications, automotive, consumer and industrial applications. Fairchild is filling the gap in the global supply of building block semiconductors. Supplying logic, analog, mixed signal, non-volatile memory and discrete power and signal technologies solutions, Fairchild is fully committed to products other companies give only part time attention. The company is headquartered in South Portland, Maine, USA, with 7,800 employees worldwide. Additional manufacturing facilities are located in California, Utah, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines, with regional sales offices throughout the world.