July 19, 2012 – PRNewswire — Fabless semiconductor company Integrated Silicon Solution, Inc. (Nasdaq:ISSI) plans to acquire all the outstanding shares of Chingis Technology Corporation pursuant to a cash tender offer valued at $33 million, or $16 million net of the approximately $17 million in cash expected to be on Chingis’ balance sheet at closing.
ISSI entered into a definitive agreement with the major shareholders of Chingis today, with the transaction expected to close in September 2012. Completion of the transaction is conditioned on at least 60% of the Chingis shares being tendered, regulatory approvals in Taiwan and other customary closing conditions.
Founded in 1995, Chingis provides various NOR flash memory technologies used in standalone and embedded applications with more than 80 worldwide patents and patents pending. The company has 75 employees in Taiwan, Korea, China and the United States and its stock trades on the Emerging Stock Market in Taiwan (TSE: 3408). For the year ended December 31, 2011, Chingis reported annual revenue of $39.6 million and net income of $2.6 million.
ISSI is looking to strengthen its specialty memory product portfolio by adding another specialty memory technology with growth opportunities. ISSI currently offers SRAM and DRAM memory products for memory customers.
ISSI intends to leverage its existing infrastructure to increase scale and lower Chingis’ costs, utilize its foundry relationships to grow Chingis’ embedded business, and expand the Chingis flash product line based on customers’ needs. The companies share a number of distributor and customer relationships, particularly in Asia.
NOR flash memory offers many of the same key attributes as ISSI’s specialty memory portfolio, said Scott Howarth, ISSI president and CEO, noting NOR flash chips’ stable pricing and gross margins and long product life cycles. Howarth expects NOR flash memory to meet demand from ISSI’s automotive and industrial customers. Also read: NOR Flash makers balance cellphone slowdown with new design wins
ISSI is a fabless semiconductor company that designs and markets high performance integrated circuits for automotive, communications, industrial, medical, military, and digital consumer applications. Visit http://www.issi.com/.