Acquicor Technology
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jazz Semiconductor is a semiconductor wafer foundry that is a wholly-owned
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
subsidiary of
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
-based
Tower Semiconductor Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is an Israeli company that manufactures integrated circuits using specialty process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, Silicon Photonics, SOI, mixed-signal and RFCMOS, CMOS image sensors, non-imaging sensors, power m ...
. Its customers include developers of wireless,
optical networking Optical networking is a means of communication that uses signals encoded in light to transmit information in various types of telecommunications networks. These include limited range Local area network, local-area networks (LAN) or Wide area networ ...
, power management, storage, and
aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astr ...
/defense applications. Headquartered in Newport Beach, California, Jazz passed through a number of acquisitions including the short-lived company Acquicor Technology, which renamed itself Jazz Technologies and then sold it two years later.


History

Jazz Semiconductor Systems was founded on February 15, 2002, renamed itself Specialtysemi, Inc. later in February 2002 and to Jazz Semiconductor, Inc. in May 2002. Prior to March 12, 2002, it was
Conexant Conexant Systems, Inc. was an American-based software developer and fabless semiconductor company that developed technology for voice and audio processing, imaging and modems. The company began as a division of Rockwell International, before ...
's fabrication facility, as subsidiary Newport Fab, LLC. It was initially funded by Conexant and affiliates of the
Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and ...
. Shu Li was its chief executive since May 2002.
RF Micro Devices RF Micro Devices (also known as RFMD or RF Micro), was an American company that designed and manufactured high-performance radio frequency systems and solutions for applications that drive wireless and broadband communications. Headquartered in Gr ...
invested $60 million in October 2002, and became a customer. Jazz reported losses for each year of 2003, 2004, and 2005. It filed for an attempted
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...
(IPO) several times from January 2004 through July 2006, to be listed on Nasdaq under symbol JAZZ, but failed to attract investor interest. Acquicor Management LLC was jointly formed by Gil Amelio, Steve Wozniak and
Ellen Hancock Ellen Mooney Hancock (April 15, 1943 – April 19, 2022) was a technology manager from the United States who worked for IBM and Apple, among others. Early life and education Hancock was born April 15, 1943 in the Bronx, New York City, and raised ...
, all of whom had worked for Apple Computer. Founded in August 2005, Amelio was Acquicor's chief executive. Acquicor Technology was known as a blank-check company: it existed only to make acquisitions in unspecified areas of the
technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...
sector, with the management partnership as its only stock-holder. It filed for an IPO of its own in February 2006, expected to raise about $142 million adopting the symbol AQR on the
American Stock Exchange NYSE American, formerly known as the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and more recently as NYSE MKT, is an American stock exchange situated in New York City. AMEX was previously a mutual organization, owned by its members. Until 1953, it was know ...
. Although the company had to disclose that it had no revenues nor products, and companies previously led by its principals had failed, the celebrity status of the founders attracted attention. The demand for the March 14 IPO caused an exercise of the over-allotment, resulting in net proceeds of $164 million. One analyst said it was "faith-based investing taken to the extreme". In September 2006, Acquicor announced it would acquire Jazz for $260 million in cash. Jazz withdrew its own registration statement. To help finance the acquisition, Acquicor raised $145 million from convertible notes on December 19, 2006 and another $21.75 million on December 22, 2006. Conexant made a $10 million equity investment in Jazz while waiting for the deal to close, which it did on February 16, 2007. On February 21, 2007, Acquicor changed its name to Jazz Technologies, and its symbol to JAZ. In March 2007 Li resigned and Amelio became chief executive of the subsidiary company, still doing business as Jazz Semiconductor. Jazz had specialized in analog-intensive
mixed-signal integrated circuit A mixed-signal integrated circuit is any integrated circuit that has both analog circuits and digital circuits on a single semiconductor die.Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...
and its debt burden, such as buying back shares from the Acquicor principals. In February 2008 it announced a loss, and shares had reduced in price by over 80% from its IPO. The company hinted it was seeking a buyer. In May 2008, Jazz agreed to become a subsidiary of Tower Semiconductor of Israel in a stock-for-stock merger. The value of Jazz was only about $40 million after the assumption of debt, losing much of the original value of investors. Amelio retired as the deal closed on September 22, 2008.


Jazz Technologies

''Jazz Technologies'' is the parent company of its wholly owned subsidiary, Jazz Semiconductor, Inc. On September 19, 2008, Tower Semiconductor, based in Israel, announced the completion of its merger with Jazz Technologies, Inc. As a result of this transaction, Amelio, Jazz’s chairman and chief executive officer, retired as an officer and director effective upon the closing of the merger. Tower Semiconductor Completes Merger with Jazz Technologies.


References


External links

*
Acquicor website

''Acquicor Purchases Jazz Semiconductor'', September 2006


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20060319023414/http://macminute.com/2006/03/15/apple-execs-new-company/ MacMinute – ''Former Apple executives form new company'' 15 March 2006
MacMinute {{Short description, Web site MacMinute was the name of a web site that provided news and information focused on Apple Inc and the Macintosh Operating system. It was founded by Canadian businessman Stan Flack in 2001 to "keep you up-to-date on eve ...

EE Times, ''Ex-Apple execs form 'blank check' company'', 15 March 2006

Edgar Online - Acquicor IPO

Investors.com, ''Amelio And Wozniak Seek A 'Blank Check'', 3 March 2006
{{Woz Foundry semiconductor companies Companies based in Newport Beach, California Semiconductor companies of the United States