Consolidation in the electronics and semiconductor sectors was still a driver in 2020, despite the distraction of the Covid-19 pandemic.
www.eenewseurope.com, Dec. 22, 2020 –
Deals aplenty included some blockbusters, although which ones can get beyond the US-China trade friction remains an open question. With the rising significance of the Chinese market it is increasingly the case that without the approval of the Chinese authorities a deal may not be worth doing.
Here is a list of 13 deals, in roughly chronological order:
1) SK Hynix buys into a foundry
South Korea's SK Hynix Inc. is a major DRAM and NAND flash memory manufacturer but it has been concerned for a while that it needs to diversify into logic so that it is less prone to the rollercoaster ride of the memory market. In March 2020 SK Hynix moved in a small way acquiring an established business and fab (see SK Hynix buys MagnaChip foundry business, Fab 4).
2) NXP helps Globalfoundries
This isn't an M&A deal but a piece of internal European business that became yet more significant later in the year.
As is well known Europe lacks leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing capability and the closest it gets to it is Intel in Leixlip, Ireland and Globalfoundries in Dresden, Germany. But for certain key components on-continent manufacturing is considered important. What to do as certain wafer fabs in Europe mature and become obsolete?