Cypress acquires Simtek in $46M deal

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- 8/4/2008

Cypress Semiconductor Corp has reached an agreement to buy Simtek Corp, a supplier of non-volatile SRAM ICs, in an all cash transaction for $2.60 per share of Simtek common stock.

Cypress currently holds approximately 4% of Colorado Springs-based Simtek's outstanding common stock and has been marketing and licensing Simtek's technology since the two companies inked a joint product development agreement in March 2006.

The deal -- at an aggregate value of approximately $46 million, including the value of Simtek shares held by Cypress -- is expected to close in or prior to Q4 and sees Cypress recommitting to the memory market through acquisition. The San Jose-based company’s for sometime now has been shedding businesses, not acquiring them, to focus on its core programmability and memory businesses. Indeed, last month the company sold its Silicon Light Machines subsidiary to Dainippon Screen Manufacturing Co Ltd for an undisclosed price.

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As described by Cypress, Simtek's nonvolatile SRAMs provide the high-speed memory access of standard SRAMs at 15-ns access time, but retain data when power is turned off, a feature the company called “critical” to applications where secure data storage is essential to system functionality.

"Simtek's [non-volatile] SRAM technology combines with our S8 (0.13-micron) design platform to provide outstanding features and functions for the embedded marketplace," said Ahmad Chatila, executive VP of Cypress's memory and imaging division, in a statement today. "We are looking to integrate this technology into many of our products, including our PSoC Programmable System-on-Chip, providing a highly integrated control and power failure solution for complex analog and digital systems."

Cypress did not state plans for merging in Simtek’s employees or locations in its statement. Cypress has 15 design centers worldwide, one of which is located in Colorado Springs. The company also has four fabs, three of which are in the United States with the remaining in the Philippines.

"This is the result of a long and rigorous process of evaluating the [Simtek’s] strategic alternatives,” Robert Pearson, Simtek’s chairman, said in the statement. “Cypress's global presence and manufacturing muscle along with its longstanding expertise in SRAMs will accelerate acceptance of Simtek's world-class [non-volatile]SRAM technology by broader markets and application areas.  Simtek's worldwide team of technical and business professionals is excited to become a part of Cypress's globally recognized and respected team."

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