Infineon Technologies AG (Germany) announced that it plans to acquire SensoNor ASA (Horten, Norway), a provider of tire pressure and acceleration sensors, for about $56 million, aiming to strengthen its position in semiconductor sensors for the automotive business. As part of the offer, Infineon wants to purchase 138.5 million shares from institutional and private investors at a price of about $0.29 per share, an investment of about $41 million. SensoNor will also issue 100 million new shares to Infineon for a cash contribution of $0.15 per share, making an equivalent total of about $15 million.
"This planned takeover means we’re consequently pursuing our strategy of further strengthening our already leading position in the automotive sector, and we’re aiming to double our market share in automotive semiconductor sensors to 15%," said Reinhard Ploss, head of Infineon’s automotive and industrial electronics group. "We’re Europe’s biggest manufacturer of semiconductor solutions for automotive electronics and the world’s second biggest. Acquisition will allow us to significantly boost our existing pressure sensor business; we’ll also be able to ideally enlarge our product portfolio for semiconductor sensors to include acceleration sensors."
