March 22, 2006 – Controlling shareholders of X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries, Erfurt, Germany, and Malaysia’s 1st Silicon Sdn. Bhd. have agreed to merge, creating a foundry with combined manufacturing capacity of approximately 700,000 wafers/year ( 200mm-equivalent), and more than $300 million in sales.

1st Silicon brings advanced processes (0.25, 0.18, and 0.13-micron) for SoC designs to the table, complementing X-Fab’s output of analog-digital ICs, and gives X-Fab inroads into the Asia-Pacific region. All groups under the new company will assume the X-Fab name.

X-Fab ranked no. 11 in IC Insights’ ranks of 2005 pure-play foundries in terms of revenues, with $230 million; 1st Silicon was no. 17 with $75 million. Together they would have been the ninth largest foundry in terms of revenues, just behind Singapore’s SSMC.