
Cypress Semiconductor Corporation was an American semiconductor design and
manufacturing
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the
secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...
company. It offered
NOR flash memories, F-RAM and SRAM Traveo microcontrollers,
PSoCs,
PMICs,
capacitive touch-sensing controllers,
Wireless BLE Bluetooth Low-Energy and
USB connectivity solutions.
Its headquarters were in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...
, with operations in the United States, Ireland, India and the Philippines.
In April 2016, Cypress Semiconductors announced the acquisition of
Broadcom
Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data cen ...
’s Wireless Internet of Things Business. The deal was closed in July 2016.
In June 2019,
Infineon Technologies
Infineon Semiconductor solutions is the largest microcontroller manufacturer in the world, as well as Germany's largest semiconductor manufacturer. It is also the leading automotive semiconductor manufacturer globally. Infineon had roughly 58,0 ...
announced it would acquire Cypress for $9.4 billion. The deal closed in April 2020, making Infineon one of the world's top 10 semiconductor manufacturers.
Some of its main competitors included
Microchip Technology
Microchip Technology Incorporated is a publicly listed American semiconductor corporation that manufactures microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog, and Flash-IP integrated circuits.
Its corporate headquarters is located in Chandler, Arizona. ...
,
NXP Semiconductors
NXP Semiconductors N.V. is a Dutch semiconductor manufacturing and design company with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is the third largest European semiconductor company by market capitalization as of 2024. The company employs approx ...
,
Renesas Electronics and
Micron Technology
Micron Technology, Inc. is an American producer of computer memory and computer data storage including dynamic random-access memory, flash memory, and solid-state drives (SSDs). It is headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Micron's consumer produc ...
.
History
Founding and early years
It was founded by
T. J. Rodgers and others (Fritz Beyerlein, Fred Jenne, Steven H. Kaplan, R. Michael Starnes and Lowell Turriff) from
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a Information technology, hardware and F ...
. It was formed in 1982 with backing by
Sevin Rosen and
went public in 1986. The company initially focused on the design and development of high speed
CMOS
Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss
", , ) is a type of MOSFET, metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) semiconductor device fabrication, fabrication process that uses complementary an ...
SRAMs,
EEPROM
EEPROM or E2PROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) is a type of non-volatile memory. It is used in computers, usually integrated in microcontrollers such as smart cards and remote keyless systems, or as a separate chip d ...
s,
PAL devices, and
TTL devices. Two years after going public the company switched from the
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...
to the
New York Stock Exchange
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...
. In October 2009, the company announced it would switch its listing to the NASDAQ on November 12, 2009.
The AgigA Tech, Inc. subsidiary sells non-volatile random-access memory (
RAM). It was acquired during the Simtek purchase in August 2008, and marks the second time that Cypress acquired a start-up venture from founder, Ron Sartore, who also co-founded Anchor Chips. The division was sold to the Unigen Corporation in May 2021.
In November 2011, Cypress also backed a packaging firm called Deca Technologies, Inc.
2015
In December 2014, Cypress Semiconductor merged with
Spansion in an all-stock deal worth $1.59 billion. The merger represented the combination of two companies that were No. 1 in their respective memory markets and have successfully diversified into embedded processing.
In March 2015, Cypress and Spansion completed of the transactions of the merger in an all-stock, tax-free transaction valued at approximately $5 billion. Cypress shareholders approved the issuance of 2.457 shares of Cypress stock to Spansion shareholders for each Spansion share they own. The merger is expected to achieve more than $135 million in cost synergies on an annualized basis within three years and to be accretive to non-GAAP earnings within the first full year after the transaction closes. At the time of its merger with Spansion in 2015, Cypress Semiconductor had more than 7,000 US and foreign patents. Cypress Semiconductor is a component of the Ocean Tomo 300 Patent Index.
[300® Patent Index](_blank)
Ocean Tomo. Retrieved on 2013-11-20.
Cypress attempted to acquire Integrated Silicon Solution Inc. in 2015 but was thwarted by a competing bid by Chinese buyer consortium Uphill Investment Co., which included
GigaDevice, a major competitor in the NOR flash market. This buyer consortium offered a higher bid than Cypress and successfully acquired ISSI for $731 million.
Also in 2015, Cypress tried to acquire
Atmel, but was outbid by
Dialog Semiconductor (in the end,
Microchip Technology
Microchip Technology Incorporated is a publicly listed American semiconductor corporation that manufactures microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog, and Flash-IP integrated circuits.
Its corporate headquarters is located in Chandler, Arizona. ...
made the deal).
2016
In April 2016, Cypress announced the acquisition of Broadcom’s Wireless Internet of Things (IoT) business and related assets in an all-cash transaction valued at $550 million. Under the terms of the deal, Cypress will acquire Broadcom's
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...
,
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...
and Zigbee IoT product lines and
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
, along with its WICED brand and developer ecosystem.
In April 2016, it was announced that Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc. will invest $60 million in Deca and will license Deca’s M-Series
fan-out wafer-level packaging (FOWLP) technologies and processes. As part of the agreement,
ASE Group and Deca will jointly develop the M-Series fan-out manufacturing process and will expand production of
chip-scale packages using this technology.
Cypress named
Hassane El-Khoury its president and chief executive officer, and announced he will join the board of directors on Aug. 11, 2016.
2017 board dispute
In April 2017
Delaware Chancery Court
The Delaware Court of Chancery is a court of equity in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is one of Delaware's three constitutional courts, along with the Delaware Supreme Court, Supreme Court and Delaware Superior Court, Superior Court. Since 2018, ...
decided Cypress Semiconductor Corp. had to give former CEO Rodgers insight into internal documents related to possible violations of Cypress's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics by executive chairman Ray Bingham.
Bingham, who is a founding member of
venture capital
Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
firm Canyon Bridge Capital Partners Inc, a
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
state-backed
private equity fund
A private equity fund (abbreviated as PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity.
...
, was criticized for the
conflict of interest
A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...
leading Cypress and Canyon Bridge as both companies possibly focus on the same acquisition targets.
Rodgers ran a
proxy contest against the
board, aiming for veteran tech industry board directors Daniel McCranie and Camillo Martino to replace Ray Bingham and Cypress director
Éric Benhamou.
On June 12, 2017 it was made public that Ray Bingham stepped down from the board. Prior to Bingham’s resignation, shareholder-advisory firms
ISS,
Glass Lewis and
Egan-Jones had recommended McCranie and Martino, Rodgers's nominees, citing "additional - and sharper - questions not only regarding the board's handling of this situation but also regarding the potential for conflicts of interest inherent in Bingham's dual roles."
On June 20, 2017, both of Rodgers's nominees won victories by substantial margins.
2019-2020 merger
In 2019, under CEO Hassane El-Khouri, the company agreed to the offer of
Infineon Technologies
Infineon Semiconductor solutions is the largest microcontroller manufacturer in the world, as well as Germany's largest semiconductor manufacturer. It is also the leading automotive semiconductor manufacturer globally. Infineon had roughly 58,0 ...
valued about $9 billions (that represents the all-cash buyout price of $23.85 per share). This purchase price premium of 55% was the 4th highest premium paid for a public semiconductor company with greater than $1 Billion in value since 2014. The price also represented 18.2 times next twelve month average analyst EBITDA estimates, which was the 4th highest EBITDA multiple paid for a public semiconductor company with a value greater than $1 Billion since 2014.
[https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/791915/000110465919033288/a19-10962_2ex99d5.htm 8-K Filing with SEC Page=4] The acquisition was announced complete on April 17, 2020, ending the independent history of Cypress Semiconductors.
See also
*
SunPower
*
List of semiconductor fabrication plants
*
List of S&P 400 companies
This is a list of companies having stocks that are included in the S&P MidCap 400 (S&P 400) stock market index. The index, maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, comprises the common stocks of 400 market capitalization, mid-cap, mostly American, comp ...
*
Kr00k, vulnerability in some Cypress WiFi chips.
* icDirectory Limited
References
External links
*
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1980s initial public offerings
1982 establishments in California
2020 disestablishments in California
2020 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 1982
American companies disestablished in 2020
Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Computer companies established in 1982
Computer companies disestablished in 2020
Defunct computer companies based in California
Defunct computer companies of the United States
Defunct computer hardware companies
Defunct manufacturing companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States
Electronic design automation companies
Electronics companies established in 1982
Electronics companies disestablished in 2020
Manufacturing companies based in San Jose, California
Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area