With the increasingly fierce competition in sensors, mergers and acquisitions have also become one of the effective ways for companies to build a moat. In 2020, mergers and acquisitions in the sensor field are in full swing.

Tyco Electronics completes acquisition of First sensor

In March 2020, TE Connectivity completed the public acquisition of First Sensor and held a 71.87% stake in First Sensor.

Tyco Electronics is a priority in connectivity and sensing solutions.

First Sensor is the world's leading supplier of sensor system solutions and is part of TE Connectivity.

It is reported that First Sensor was established in 1990, and its core competitiveness lies in chip development and production and microelectronic packaging. Products cover optical sensors, pressure sensors, inertial sensors, etc.

Smartway acquires Anxin Micro

In June 2020, SmartSens successfully acquired Shenzhen Anxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (Allchip) (hereinafter referred to as "Anxin Micro").

SmartVision was founded in 2011, focusing on the innovation and research and development of CMOS image sensors and imaging technologies. With a mass-produced chip product SC1035 in 2014, it successfully entered the field of security applications and rapidly expanded the market. Since 2017, SmartVision has been the leader in terms of shipments in the security field for many years, and its market share is still rising year after year.

Anxin Micro focuses on the field of CMOS image sensors for automotive cameras, and produces chips that are competitive in automotive cameras and other miniaturized video surveillance applications.

This acquisition is an important strategic layout for Smartway to penetrate into the field of automotive electronics. The successful acquisition of Shenzhen Anxin Micro enabled Smartway to quickly open up the automotive electronics market.

ams completes acquisition of Osram

ams announced on July 10, 2020 that it has successfully completed the acquisition of OSRAM on July 9. Today's acquisition is an important milestone in the process of integrating ams and Osram as a global player in sensor solutions and optoelectronics, said the CEO of ams.

It is reported that after the completion of the transaction, ams holds 69% of Osram's shares and purchases additional shares in addition to the purchase of shares according to the takeover offer, with a total transaction value of about 2.7 billion euros.

In August 2019, ams announced that it had proposed an all-cash takeover to Osram with a bid of 38.5 euros per share. Ams said the bid valued Osram at 4.3 billion euros, or about 34 billion yuan.

In May 2020, it was reported that ams was seeking a $5 billion capital increase from shareholders in order to finance the acquisition of Osram. On July 6 of the same year, ams announced that its acquisition of Osram had received unconditional regulatory approval from the European Commission.

Zhilu Capital acquires Swiss sensor company Fuba from Siemens

On July 28, 2020, Siemens sold its core component manufacturing company Huba Control (hereinafter referred to as "Swiss Fuba") to Beijing Zhilu Capital as a whole, and completed the signing on the same day. According to the agreement, after the transaction is completed, Zhilu Capital will have the actual control of Fuba in Switzerland.

Founded in 1945, Fuba Switzerland has been committed to the research of pressure sensing technology for nearly 60 years. It is the largest manufacturer of pressure sensors in Europe. After its establishment, it launched -100kPa~60MPa pressure sensors to the market, including pressure transmitters, differential pressure transmitters, pressure switches, differential pressure switches, vacuum switches and other products, which are widely used in water conservancy and hydropower, railway transportation and other products. , intelligent buildings, production automation, aerospace and other industrial automation environments.

Zhilu Capital is one of the core enterprises of the Ronshine Industry Alliance. It has successfully participated in or invested in several overseas projects before, and has completed many overseas mergers and acquisitions and joint venture projects with multinational companies such as NXP, Qualcomm, and Austrian Semiconductor.

At present, China's pressure sensors basically rely on imports, and they are mainly products from American giants such as Honeywell, General Electric, and Sensata. There is an urgent need for domestic import substitution. Industry experts believe that this cross-border acquisition will bring China's manufacturing technology to complement the shortcomings and bring more possibilities for the development of the industry.

Goodix Technology Acquires DCT

On August 3, 2020, Goodix Technology announced that it has completed the acquisition of Germany's Dream Chip Technologies GmbH (hereinafter referred to as DCT), a system-on-chip design company in the industry.

It is reported that DCT has strong technical development strength in the fields of large-scale ASICs, SoCs, FPGAs, embedded software and systems, and its main products are used in automotive vision systems. Its strong development team and more than 25 years of design experience have allowed DCT to build a strong competitive advantage in the fields of image signal processing, device interconnection and autonomous systems.

Zhang Fan, CEO of Goodix Technology, once said that DCT's strong technical strength and solutions have been widely verified by the market, and at the same time, it is highly in line with the company's strategic development needs in the fields of automotive electronics and image signal processing.

Capiton acquires ASSA ABLOY's sensor technology business

On November 12, 2020, Swedish manufacturer ASSA ABLOY said it had sold its sensor technology business CEDES in Switzerland to Capiton.

CEDES, founded in 1986, is a sensor technology company for the elevator and door industry and a global player in optical sensors using active infrared technology and image processing. The deal did not disclose the specific transaction price.

Nuvoton Technology Completes Acquisition of Panasonic Semiconductor Business

In September 2020, the Financial Associated Press reported that Panasonic completed the sale of its semiconductor business to Nuvoton.

On November 28, 2019, Nuvoton Technology announced that it would spend a total of US$250 million, about NT$7.627 billion (units are the same below), to acquire 100% equity of Panasonic Semiconductor Solutions Corporation (PSCS), Panasonic Semiconductor (Suzhou) ) company equipment and inventory, and Panasonic's Panasonic Industrial Devices Semiconductor Asia semiconductor production business in Singapore.

At that time, Panasonic said that the company was trying to get rid of loss-making businesses and wanted to put more resources on other growth areas, so it sold its semiconductor-related companies and businesses in Japan, mainland China and Singapore to Nuvoton.

Huapei Power acquires Shengmaike Sensing

On December 2, 2020, Huapei Power and Wuxi Shengmaike signed an equity acquisition agreement. Huapei Power plans to acquire 100% equity of Wuxi Shengmaike in four phases in an all-cash manner. The total equity transfer price corresponding to the four-phase delivery shall not exceed People 151.05 million yuan, the first phase to acquire 51% equity of Wuxi Shengmaike, and the remaining equity will be gradually completed in three phases according to the realization of the target company's performance during the gambling period.

Wuxi Shengmic was established in 2005, mainly for the pre-installation market of commercial vehicles and non-road vehicles, providing customers with various types of pressure sensors, exhaust temperature sensors, position sensors and other products, which are widely used in exhaust after-treatment systems, Engine management systems, chassis and safety systems, etc.

It is reported that Huapei Power's acquisition of Shengmike Sensing Technology Co., Ltd. is its entry into the field of commercial vehicle sensors. (Proofreading/Small such as)