Maxim pays $130 million for MEMS firm

LONDON – Maxim Integrated Products Inc. has said it has acquired fabless MEMS firm SensorDynamics AG for $130 million. With the acquisition of the company Maxim takes on about $34 million of debt.

SensorDynamics (Lebring, Austria) was founded in 2002 and has developed proprietary sensor and MEMS integrated circuits. It has performed R&D in the area of low-power wireless interfaces to MEMS sensors and is best known for in inertial MEMS sensors and automotive smart-key chips. The company is also present in the energy harvesting market.

Maxim (Sunnyvale, Calif.) said the match was a good fit as it would allow Maxim to expand its presence in the automotive and consumer applications markets, while at the same time is manufacturing expertise would help SensorDynamics focus on engineering sensors and MEMS. Maxim said it would become a leading competitor in the inertial sensor and wireless sensor interface markets.

The MEMS market is expected to grow at a three-year compound annual growth rate of 14 percent between 2011 and 2014 from an annual market size of about $7.7 billion in 2011, Maxim said.

Maxim did not state whether SensorDynamics would continue as a wholly-owned subsidiary company, would become a division of Maxim, or whether the technology and staff would be distributed across Maxim's existing organizational structure.

"Maxim is a recognized leader in analog integration, and this acquisition extends Maxim's integration strategy by enabling us to fuse many types of sensors with our analog technology. The strategic integration of sensors, analog functions and low power wireless connectivity will allow us to deliver end-to-end mixed-signal solutions that provide our customers with better performance, smaller form factors and lower system costs," said Tunc Doluca, Maxim's president and CEO, in a statement.

Hubertus Christ, SensorDynamics’ chief executive officer, noted: “This transaction will enable SensorDynamics to enhance its product pipeline and foster sustainable growth well into the future."


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