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Microsemi Picks Up Local Chip Startup Nexsem

Irvine-based Microsemi Corp., which makes chips for military, aerospace and industrial uses, said Monday it purchased Irvine-based Nexsem Inc., a startup maker of chips that manage power in consumer electronics.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Privately held Nexsem designs and markets chips that go into liquid crystal display TVs, television set-top boxes, notebook computers and netbooks, which are inexpensive, portable computers with fewer features.

“In Nexsem we have found an excellent complement to our existing power management offerings,” Chief Executive Jim Peterson said in a statement. The buy “nicely supplements our industry-leading low power product offering, while increasing our total dollar content per application in several high-growth markets.”

Microsemi has made half a dozen acquisitions in the past two years, spending more than $100 million to acquire companies or product lines.

Most of its recent acquisitions have been almost exclusively makers of what are known as high-reliability chips. They go into devices that need to perform under extreme conditions where failures can be costly.

High-reliability chips are built for durability they have to withstand conditions such as outer space or distant ocean depths and continue to function for years.

They’re used in satellites, medical devices and industrial machinery.

This time around, Microsemi picked up a distinctly commercial player in Nexsem in an effort to have a balanced customer set.

The deal “demonstrates our continued focus on a balanced growth model at Microsemi; one which augments the steady nature of our high-reliability markets with the traditionally high growth opportunities found in the commercial marketplace,” Peterson said.

Microsemi’s shares were flat at close of trading on a recent market value of about $1 billion.

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