Cypress Semiconductor

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation was an American semiconductor design and manufacturing company. It offered NOR flash memories, F-RAM and SRAM Traveo microcontrollers, the industry's only PSoC programmable system-on-chip solutions, analog and PMIC Power Management ICs, CapSense capacitive touch-sensing controllers, Wireless BLE Bluetooth Low-Energy and USB connectivity solutions. In June 2019, Infineon Technologies announced it would acquire Cypress for $9.4 billion.[2] The deal closed in April 2020, making Infineon one of the world's top 10 semiconductor manufacturers.[3][4]

Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
Subsidiary
IndustrySemiconductors
Founded1982 (1982),
in Silicon Valley, California, U.S.
FounderT. J. Rodgers 
HeadquartersSan Jose, California, U.S.
Key people
Reinhard Ploss
(CEO Infineon)
Revenue US$ 2.48 billion (2018)
US$ 164.43 million (2018)
US$ 354.83 million (2018)
Total assets US$ 3.69 billion (2018)
Total equity US$ 2.12 billion (2018)
Number of employees
5,846 (2018)
ParentInfineon Technologies
DivisionsProgrammable Systems
Memory Product
Data Communications
Emerging Technologies
WebsiteCypress.com
Footnotes / references
[1]
An EPLD from Cypress Semiconductor in a PLCC-package

Its headquarters are in San Jose, California, and it has operations in the United States, Ireland, India and the Philippines.[5]

Some of its main competitors include Microchip Technology, NXP, Renesas and Micron. In April 2016, Cypress Semiconductors announced the acquisition of Broadcom's Wireless Internet of Things Business. The deal was closed in July 2016.[6]

History

Founding and early years

It was founded by T. J. Rodgers and others (Fritz Beyerlein, Fred Jenne, Steven H. Kaplan, R. Michael Starnes and Lowell Turriff [7]) from Advanced Micro Devices. It was formed in 1982 with backing by Sevin Rosen and went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and development of high speed CMOS SRAMs, EEPROMs, PAL devices, and TTL logic devices. Two years after going public the company switched from the NASDAQ to the New York Stock Exchange. In October 2009, the company announced it would switch its listing to the NASDAQ on November 12, 2009.[8]

The Edward subsidiary AgigaTech, Inc. sells non-volatile random-access memory (RAM) and is based in San Diego, CA. It was acquired during the Simtek purchase in August 2008, and marks the second time that Cypress acquired a start-up venture from founder, Ron Sartore, who also co-founded Anchor Chips.[9]

In November 2011, Cypress also backed a packaging firm called Deca Technologies, Inc.[10]

2015

In December 2014, Cypress Semiconductor merged with Spansion in an all-stock deal worth $1.59 billion. The merger represented the combination of two companies that were No. 1 in their respective memory markets and have successfully diversified into embedded processing.[11]

In March 2015, Cypress and Spansion completed of the transactions of the merger in an all-stock, tax-free transaction valued at approximately $5 billion. Cypress shareholders approved the issuance of 2.457 shares of Cypress stock to Spansion shareholders for each Spansion share they own. The merger is expected to achieve more than $135 million in cost synergies on an annualized basis within three years and to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings within the first full year after the transaction closes.[12] At the time of its merger with Spansion in 2015, Cypress Semiconductor had more than 7,000 US and foreign patents.[13] Cypress Semiconductor is a component of the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index.[14]

Cypress attempted to acquire Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. in 2015 but was thwarted by a competing bid by Chinese buyer consortium Uphill Investment Co., which included GigaDevice, a major competitor in the NOR flash market. This buyer consortium offered a higher bid than Cypress and successfully acquired ISSI for $731 million.[15]

Also in 2015, Cypress tried to acquire Atmel, but was outbid by Dialog Semiconductor (in the end, Microchip Technology made the deal).[16]

2016

In April 2016, Cypress announced the acquisition of Broadcom’s Wireless Internet of Things (IoT) business and related assets in an all-cash transaction valued at $550 million. Under the terms of the deal, Cypress will acquire Broadcom's Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee IoT product lines and intellectual property, along with its WICED brand and developer ecosystem.[17]

In April 2016, it was announced that Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. will invest $60 million in Deca and will license Deca’s M-Series fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) technologies and processes. As part of the agreement, ASE Group and Deca will jointly develop the M-Series fan-out manufacturing process and will expand production of chip-scale packages using this technology.[18]

Cypress named Hassane El-Khoury its president and chief executive officer, and announced he will join the board of directors on Aug. 11, 2016.[5]

2017 board dispute

In April 2017 Delaware Chancery Court decided Cypress Semiconductor Corp. had to give former CEO Rodgers insight into internal documents related to possible violations of Cypress's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics by executive chairman Ray Bingham.[19]

Bingham, who is a founding member of venture capital firm Canyon Bridge Capital Partners Inc,[20] a China state-backed private equity fund, was criticized for the conflict of interest leading Cypress and Canyon Bridge as both companies possibly focus on the same acquisition targets.[21]

Rodgers ran a proxy contest against the board, aiming for veteran tech industry board directors Daniel McCranie and Camillo Martino to replace Ray Bingham and Cypress director Eric Benhamou.[19]

On June 12, 2017 it was made public that Ray Bingham stepped down from the board.[22] Prior to Bingham’s resignation, shareholder-advisory firms ISS, Glass Lewis and Egan-Jones had recommended McCranie and Martino, Rodgers's nominees, citing "additional - and sharper - questions not only regarding the board's handling of this situation but also regarding the potential for conflicts of interest inherent in Bingham's dual roles."[23]

On June 20, 2017, both of Rodgers's nominees won victories by substantial margins.[24]

2019/2020 merger

In 2019 under CEO Hassane El-Khouri the company agreed to the offer of Infineon Technologies valued about $9 billions (that represents the all-cash buyout price of $23.85 per share)[25] and the acquisition was announced complete on April 17, 2020, ending the independent history of Cypress Semiconductors.[3]

Locations

Cypress was headquartered in San Jose, CA and had manufacturing plants in Austin, TX and Bloomington, MN, assembly and test operations in the Philippines and Bangkok, Thailand. Cypress had design facilities in the United States (including San Jose, CA; Lynnwood, WA; Colorado Springs, CO; Lexington, KY; San Diego, CA; and Beaverton, OR), Japan (Tokyo), Germany (Langen and Munich), India (Bangalore), China (Shanghai), Ukraine (Lviv), Ireland (Dublin and Cork), Malaysia (Penang) and other locations. Cypress had previously divested a large portion of its San Jose campus to SVTC, SunPower and Second Harvest Food Bank.

List of acquisitions

Since its founding, Cypress has acted as an incubator for wholly owned subsidiaries which are given a degree of autonomy and has acquired other small technology companies. In addition, Cypress has been an active acquirer of smaller technology companies. In addition, Cypress has incorporated some of its technology into subsidiaries, to speed up development of such products as the PSoC Programmable System-on-Chip (SoC) that integrates analog and digital components with a microcontroller on a single chip to form a complete solution for embedded systems. Since the early 1990s, acquisitions have included:

  • Timing Technology
    • IC Design
    • IC Works[26]
    • International Microcircuits Inc.
  • USB Technology
    • Anchor Chips
    • In-System Design
    • ScanLogic
  • SoC Technology
    • Broadcom (WICED)
    • Cypress Microsystems (PSoC)
  • RAM Technology
  • Radio Frequency Technology
    • Alation
    • RadioCom
  • Solar Cell Technology
    • SunPower (distributed to CY shareholders in 2008 as SPWRB stock)
    • PowerLight
  • Image Sensors
    • Silicon Light Machines
    • FillFactory (sold to ON Semiconductor)
    • SMaL Camera Technologies(Sold to Sensata Technologies in 2007)
  • Datacom/Telecom
    • Arcus
    • Silicon Packets
    • Lara Networks
    • HiBand Semiconductors

See also

References
  1. "US SEC: Form 10-K Cypress Semiconductor Corporation". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  2. "Infineon acquires Cypress Semiconductor for $9.4B". SiliconANGLE. 2019-06-02. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  3. "Infineon completes acquisition of Cypress". DIGITIMES. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  4. "Infineon Technologies AG completes acquisition of Cypress Semiconductor Corporation". Cypress Semiconductor Corporation. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  5. Clark, Don (2016-08-11). "Cypress Semiconductor Picks New CEO From Auto Tech". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-08-23.
  6. "Cypress Closes $550 Million Acquisition Of Broadcom's 'Internet Of Things' Business". Forbes. July 5, 2016. Retrieved 2019-06-03.
  7. http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2013/04/102723387-05-01-acc.pdf
  8. "Cypress Semiconductor Corp. to Switch Stock Exchange Listing to NASDAQ on November 12". 2009-10-30. Retrieved 2009-10-30.
  9. "Ron Sartore". Archived from the original on 2011-08-05. Retrieved 2017-08-26.
  10. Dylan McGrath, EE Times. "Cypress-backed packaging firm launches." November 9, 2011. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
  11. "Cypress and Spansion Complete $5 Billion All-Stock Merger".
  12. PRNewsWire. "Cypress and Spansion to Merge in $4 Billion All-Stock Transaction." Dec 1, 2014. Retrieved Jul 6, 2017.
  13. "Cypress Semiconductor 2015 Form 10-K Annual Report". Archived from the original on 2016-05-11.
  14. 300® Patent Index. Ocean Tomo. Retrieved on 2013-11-20.
  15. "ISSI Shareholders Approve Acquisition by Uphill Investment". Bloomberg. June 30, 2015.
  16. "Cypress Semiconductor drops bid for chipmaker Atmel". Reuters. September 28, 2015.
  17. "Cypress to Pay $550 Million for Broadcom's IoT Business | EE Times". EETimes. Retrieved 2016-06-07.
  18. "Cypress Subsidiary Deca Technologies to Receive $60 Million Investment from ASE".
  19. "Cypress Semiconductor forced to delay annual meeting by Delaware court". Reuters. June 1, 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  20. "Exclusive: Chinese government money backs buyout firm's deal for U.S. chip maker". Reuters. November 29, 2016. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  21. "Cypress Semiconductor Must Turn Over Docs to Former CEO". www.bna.com. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  22. "Cypress Executive Chairman Ray Bingham steps down from board". Reuters. June 12, 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  23. Austin, Elliott. "STMicroelectronics N.V. (STM) and Cypress Semiconductor Corporation (CY) Swings Under News Buzzer | Investing Bizz". www.investingbizz.com. Archived from the original on 2017-06-07. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  24. "Cypress Stockholders Elect T.J. Rodgers' Nominees to Board". EETimes. June 20, 2017. Retrieved 2017-06-20.
  25. Bylund, Anders (2019-10-30). "Cypress Semiconductor Takes One Last Bow on the Earnings Stage". The Motley Fool. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  26. Bloomberg. “Company Overview of IC Works, Inc..” Retrieved August 25, 2016.
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