News

Infineon Acquires Primarion

April 28, 2008 by Jeff Shepard

Infineon Technologies announced that it has acquired 100% of Primarion, Inc., which it states will further strengthen its activities in the field of power management applications.

Infineon describes itself as one of the leaders in designing, manufacturing and marketing digital power ICs for computing, graphics and communication applications. Primarion is a fabless company, headquartered in Torrance, California.

"Infineon will now be positioned to set the benchmark in system density, efficiency and control by combining the performance of Primarion’s digitally controlled power-management devices with Infineon’s leading power semiconductors portfolio," said Peter Bauer, Member of the Management Board and Head of Infineon’s Automotive, Industrial and Multimarket Business Group. "The addition of Primarion helps accelerate our access to the potential growth in the digital power segment by providing advanced system solutions for our customers. This investment is also a great complement to our power management activities based out of Villach in Austria."

The company states that digital power is a fast-growing emerging market for ICs in power supplies and is increasingly replacing today’s traditional analog solutions. Following the carve-out of Qimonda in 2006, Infineon is focusing on three key areas of business: Energy Efficiency, Communications and Security.

The company announced its intention to address these areas both through acquisitions and investment in organic growth. Following the acquisition of Texas Instruments’ DSL CPE business and LSI’s Mobility Products Group last year, the acquisition of Primarion is said to be another major step in strengthening Infineon’s core business.

According to Linnea Brush, Senior Research Analyst for The Darnell Group, "In Darnell Group’s 2007 Digital Benchmarking Survey, Primarion scored as one of the Top Five Digital IC Mindshare Leaders, and was number one in Quality and Value. Their products also scored ’Best in Class‘ for Interoperablity."