Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd. has offered Micron Technology Inc. $140 million to buy a Japanese silicon wafer chip plant in Nishiwaki, an area not severely affected by the recent earthquake and tsunami.
Tower operates under the brand name TowerJazz and counts a chipmaking plant in Newport Beach along with two in Israel. The company expects to nearly double production by 120,000 wafers a month with the buy from Boise, Idaho-based Micron.
The added capacity is needed to serve growing demand from big chip customers. The deal also gives TowerJazz the chance to beef up its Asia-Pacific operations, according to company officials.
The company aims to double annual revenue to $1 billion by 2014, they said.
“The acquisition of a fab in Japan would be a strategic move by TowerJazz to enter the Japanese market and strengthen our presence in the Asia-Pacific region through local, high quality manufacturing capabilities and, in addition, would provide us with needed, large scale incremental capacity,” TowerJazz Chief Executive Russell Ellwanger said.
The proposed buy breaks down like this: $40 million in cash, about 20 million Tower shares and the assumption of some Micron pension obligations.
The companies expect to sign a supply agreement for TowerJazz to make products for Micron in Japan for about three years as part of the deal.
The companies are negotiating final details.
Tower Semiconductor bought what was Newport Beach’s Jazz Semiconductor Inc. in 2008 for $40 million plus an additional $129 million in debt. It renamed the locally based operation TowerJazz.
TowerJazz got its start as the chip making arm of Rockwell International Corp., which no longer exists but left behind Milwaukee-based Rockwell Automation Inc. and Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Rockwell Collins Inc.
Rockwell first spun off the chip making business as part of Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. in 1999.
In 2002, Conexant split off its Newport Beach chip factory as Jazz Semiconductor.
Broadcom Upgrade
Oppenheimer & Co. earlier this month upgraded its outlook on Irvine’s Broadcom Corp., making the case that its shares will “outperform.”
Analyst Rick Schafer views the company as one of the best positioned chipmakers thanks to the prospect of continued growth in the mobile, wireless broadband and networking markets.
The assessment came amid a slip in Broadcom shares that’s trimmed about 20% of their value since January and recently put them below $40. That presents a window of opportunity for investors to buy into one of the few remaining large-cap chipmakers with potential for strong growth, Shafer said.
Broadcom had a market value of $20.5 billion last week.
The company is well positioned for revenue growth at or above Wall Street’s estimate of a 15% gain to $7.8 billion in 2011, according to Shafer.
The chipmaker saw record sales and profits last year as demand increased for its chips for tablet computers, smartphones, set-top boxes, broadband modems, networking gear and other products.
The technology industry’s rebound and acquisitions boosted Broadcom’s 2010 sales to $6.8 billion, a 52% rise from a year earlier.
Last year’s revenue gain pushed Broadcom from the county’s sixth largest public company in 2010 to No. 3 this year, behind Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc. and Irvine’s Western Digital Corp., according to the Business Journal’s April 11 list of the largest public companies here.
New Name: AnyMeeting
Huntington Beach-based Freebinar, which provides free web conferencing and webinar services, has changed its name to AnyMeeting as part of its rebranding effort.
The company, which has been funded by Irvine’s Tech Coast Angels as well as a similar group in Pasadena, allows users to edit and record meetings and access bookmarks for specific points in a presentation.
AnyMeeting is advertiser supported. A display ad runs on the right side of the media room during the conference and is rotated every minute.
The ads are screened to ensure they are not from any competitors of the companies taking part in a conference.
AnyMeeting has picked up business, increasing sign-ups by users at a 25% monthly clip since the beginning of the year, according to Chief Executive Costin Tuculescu.
It now has 10 full-time employees and expects to generate more than $1 million in revenue in 2011, Tuculescu said.
AnyMeeting is part of Huntington Beach’s Cosnet Inc.
The company has embarked on a public relations campaign to spread the word, using search engine optimization and online marketing, according to Damian Raffele, vice president of marketing.
