Inphi to acquire eSilicon to lead in custom electro-optics for cloud and telecoms

News and Business

Inphi Corporation has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire eSilicon for US$216 million in both cash and the assumption of debt. Once complete, Inphi expects the acquisition would combine Inphi’s DSP, TiA, Driver and SiPho disciplines with eSilicon’s 2.5D packaging and custom silicon design capabilities and accelerate its roadmap for electro-optics, 5nm advanced CMOS process node, and custom DSP solutions, as well as augmenting Inphi’s existing SerDes (Serialiser/Deseriealiser) team and resources. Inphi has history with the eSilicon team through past interactions, investment and an ongoing board observer seat.

It is also expected to extend Inphi’s addressable market in cloud data centre networking and telecom 5G infrastructure with top tier OEM customers and expand the company’s presence into new, strategic geographies for talent acquisition with engineering design centres in Italy, Romania, Vietnam, and Spain and operations in Malaysia. Financially, Inphi says the deal will add between US$80 to US$120 million to 2020 revenue, be accretive to 2020 EPS and both the 2021 revenue and EPS growth rates and increase Inphi’s operational scale with suppliers, lowering costs and resulting in financial leverage.

“The Inphi team is excited to enhance our value proposition to our cloud and telecom customers with the addition of the eSilicon team and IP,” said Ford Tamer, president and CEO of Inphi. “eSilicon adds to Inphi world-class 2.5D packaging, SerDes, custom silicon and operations teams. Just as we successfully leveraged our Cortina and Clariphy acquisitions, eSilicon will advance our shared commitments in driving successful customer engagement, industry-leading innovation, and best of class execution.”

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2019, subject to US and Vietnamese regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. Concurrent with the signing of the definitive agreement, eSilicon has sold its Embedded Memory IP (SRAM, TCAM, and multi-port memory compiler) and Interface IP (HBM and HBI) assets to Synopsys Incorporated.

For more information, visit www.inphi.com