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HankR
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Joined: 02/01/2015
Location: United States
Posts: 209

Posted: 10:13am 15 Jan 2016

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I hope Microchip doesn't ruin the Atmel culture and ecosystem. It would not shock me if they did mess it up. Let's just all pray that it turns out okay.

I'm basically a Microchip fan and user, but Atmel has done a few things right or better than Microchip has, and I think it was nice to have Microchip and Atmel as able competitors.

And the Arduino phenomenom is just huge. If it weren't for the whole Arduino thing, I wouldn't have ever paid too much attention to Atmel.

Hank
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[from EE Times, industry magazine (USA) ]

Microchip Wins Atmel Bidding War
Dylan McGrath
1/15/2016 05:52 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO�Atmel Corp. said this week that its board of directors has accepted an unsolicited bid to acquire the company from Microchip Technology Inc. and plans to terminate a previous agreement to be acquired by UK-based Dialog Semiconductor plc.

In December, Microchip made an unsolicited offer to acquire Atmel for $8.15 per share, or roughly $3.8 billion. Atmel agreed in September to be acquired by Dialog in a cash and stock deal that was originally valued at $4.6 billion. However, the offer�s value has declined along with Dialog�s share price.

Atmel said this week that it notified Dialog�s board of directors that it intends to terminate the deal. Atmel said it would consider a counter offer from Dialog, but Dialog said in a statement that it is not going to revise its proposal.

�We have concluded that it is not in the best interests of our shareholders to increase the offer price for Atmel,� said Jalal Bagherli, Dialog�s CEO. �We believed the acquisition was the right strategic decision for us, and we are disappointed that it did not come to fruition.�

Atmel said it would pay Dialog a previously agreed up $137.3 million break up fee.

Bidding wars for semiconductor companies have grown increasingly common with the acceleration of industry consolidation over the past year. In 2015, the value of mergers and acquisitions announced in the semiconductor industry topped $105 billion, more than eight times the average annual value of acquisitions by semiconductor companies over the past five years, according to market research firm IC Insights Inc.

Last year, Microchip acquired analog chip vendor Micrel for $14 per share, or roughly $839 million in total.

Also this week, Atmel reported its preliminary results for the fourth quarter of 2015. The company said revenue for the quarter was roughly $261 million to $262 million, falling short of the firm�s estimate that revenue for the quarter would be between $266 million and $286 million. Atmel blamed the short fall on weaker than expected billings, primarily in Asia, as distributors reduced inventory levels due to uncertainties associated with the acquisition process.

�Dylan McGrath covers the semiconductor industry for EE Times.

boss

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Joined: 19/08/2011
Location: Canada
Posts: 268

Posted: 06:50am 16 Jan 2016

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OMG

God save us!

isochronic
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Joined: 21/01/2012
Location: Australia
Posts: 689

Posted: 11:05pm 16 Jan 2016

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Hmmm. Will a "Genuino" now be made by Microchip ?

Chris Roper
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Joined: 19/05/2015
Location: South Africa
Posts: 280

Posted: 12:03am 17 Jan 2016

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In the short turn AVR Studio will become AVRlab X and the Arduino will become Closed Source.
Longer term AVR will be merged into MPLAB X the PICKit 3 support dropped and a New PICKit 4 released that can program any device from either company but only from within the new bloated 20GB MPLAB X.

The PICKit 4 will be able to program anything in 5ms or less but only after downloading a 100MB flash update that takes half an hour.

On the other hand they may transfer all of the ATMEL engineers to MICROCHIP and all of the the MBA's that currently run Microchip will be sent to ATMEL. That way Microsoft is strengthened, a competitor crippled and nobody gets retrenched.

Joking aside I don't expect much to change on either side in the sort term but in the longer term we may see cross pollination, especial an ARM core in a PIC Device and the best peripherals from either company appearing across the range.

It may even strengthen Microchips commitment to opensource and the Hobby / Student communities.

Cheers
Chris

http://caroper.blogspot.com/

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