$130m deal for semiconductor equipment network
A secure network that connects up semiconductor manufacturing equipment around the world is being sold for $130m.
SecureWise provides secure remote access, monitoring and control for manufacturing equipment at nearly 200 fabs around the world.
The global network enables equipment manufacturers to bring up new equipment faster, provide operational support, and maximize the value derived from the equipment customers’ investments. It is currently used by over 100 equipment vendors to connect and control their tools located in over 190 semiconductor fabs and to manage the exchange of multiple petabytes of data every year.
The secureWise network is currently owned by Telit IOT Solutions, a subsidiary of cellular module company Telit Centerion.
The Telit Cinterion NeXT secure mobile core network is used for turnkey connectivity and device management service across the Internet of Things using the Telit modules. Access through a hub-and-spoke private network ensures customer machine data is protected from internet-facing attacks.
The network is being bought by PDF Solutions, which is used by semiconductor companies to manage the petabytes of manufacturing data to provide analytic insights.
As the semiconductor industry becomes more globally distributed, and as advanced devices rely on the integration of multiple chiplets into a single package, more collaboration and integration are required across the semiconductor industry. This collaboration needs to be executed securely with each participant controlling access to its intellectual property.
SecureWise customers have built applications on top of the network to deliver equipment analytics. PDF Solutions expects the acquisition to accelerate equipment makers’ ability to derive value from equipment data by enabling them to tap into its Exensio analytics software.
Beyond enabling equipment vendors to build equipment analytics at foundries, the acquisition of secureWise is expected to expand the capability of PDF Solutions own secure DEX OSAT network to equipment makers, fab operators, and fabless companies. This would allow collaboration to optimize chip manufacturing and test.
“This acquisition extends PDF Solutions analytics for equipment makers and fabless to the factory manufacturing level, which allows them to generate value from AI,” said Dr. John Kibarian, President, CEO and co-founder of PDF Solutions. He continued, “We provide the leading analytics platform for semiconductor manufacturing, and with secureWISE, the PDF Solutions platform will also be able to help members of the semiconductor ecosystem collaborate through a secure, direct connection and control the manufacturing process down to the production equipment.”
“We believe PDF Solutions is the ideal partner to accelerate secureWISE’s evolution, ensuring we remain at the forefront of industry trends and ahead of our customers’ needs,” said Mike Dempsey, Vice President of secureWise.
“This acquisition will strengthen our ability to anticipate, pioneer, and integrate a far richer suite of security, collaboration, and analytics capabilities into our platform. As data exchange and collaboration become increasingly relevant to the semiconductor industry, this acquisition will better position secureWise to deliver maximum long-term benefit to its customers who have invested in our platform.”
The deal is expected to in the next four weeks.
www.pdf.com; www.telit.com/iot-platforms-overview/telit-securewise/
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