Newport Beach-based contract chip maker Jazz Technologies Inc. didn’t offer an update on talks with potential buyers during its quarterly conference call earlier this week.
But that didn’t stop Mark LaPedus of technology news Web site EETimes.com from coming up with his own short list of possible suitors.
At the top of his list is Germany’s X-Fab Semiconductor Foundries AG, which LaPedus says goes after the same customers as Jazz and has been buying companies.
Then there’s Taiwan’s Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp., which has backing from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., one of the biggest contract chip makers.
Other possibilities, according to LaPedus: Phoenix-based On Semiconductor Corp.; Singapore’s Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd.; China’s Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.; and Shanghai Hua Hong NEC Electronics Co., a venture of China’s Hua Hong Group and Japan’s NEC Corp.
In 2003, Jazz took a stake in Hua Hong NEC.
Even IBM Corp. gets a mention as a possible suitor by LaPedus.
Earlier this year, Jazz hired UBS Securities LLC to look at “various strategic alternatives.”
The company’s low market value, $13 million at recent check, makes acquisition the likely scenario.
Jazz needs to double in size to compete with bigger rivals, executives say.
The company makes silicon wafers, the building blocks of chips, for other companies. It has seen its stock fall by roughly 80% in the past year as it struggles to find its place as a U.S. contract chipmaker in an industry dominated by big Asian rivals.
The company got its start as the chip making arm of Rockwell International Inc.’s semiconductor unit, which made chips for modems.
Rockwell spun off the business as Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. in 1999.
In 2002, Conexant split off its Newport Beach chip factory as Jazz Semiconductor.
Last year, Apple Inc. alums Gil Amelio, Steve Wozniak and Ellen Hancock bought Jazz after raising money from investors in 2006.
Amerlio runs the company as chief executive.
