
Mergers of chip companies set a record in 2020
The five biggest 2020 M&A agreements – announced in July, September, and October – had a combined value of $94.0 billion, which represented about 80 percent of the total for the entire year.
The deals included Analog Devices bid for Maxim Integrated Products for $21 billion and Nvidia’s offer to buy ARM Ltd. from SoftBank Group for $40 billion. The acquisition is expected to be completed by March 2022, but must win clearance from regulatory agencies around the world. AMD agreed to buy Xilinx for $35 billion and Marvell Technology struck a deal to buy Inphi for $10 billion.
Value of semiconductor industry mergers and acquisitions by year. Source: IC Insights.
However, some of these deals could be removed from the tally if they are abandoned because they fail to achieve regulatory approval. This has happened before with Qualcomm’s proposed acquisition of NXP Semiconductors failing to proceed in 2016.
IC Insights’ M&A list excludes acquisitions of software and system-level businesses by IC companies.
Related links and articles:
News articles:
A baker’s dozen of the deals that shaped 2020
UK authorities launch probe into Nvidia-ARM deal
Opinion: Nvidia’s bad deal is not yet done
