Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been prevalent in the semiconductor industry for the past two decades, and have substantially increased in the last 7 years or so, creating significant consolidation in the industry. These mergers and consolidations are major, multi-billion dollar deals that are streamlining the future of the semiconductor industry, and it’s no wonder why: in 2021, semiconductor sales are expected to reach $527.2 billion globally, according to Statista.
In the last 5-10 years alone, we’ve seen at least eight major acquisitions, including:
Avago acquiring Broadcom for $37 billion in 2015,
Infineon’s acquisition of International Rectifier for $3 billion in 2015,
ON Semiconductor purchasing Fairchild for $2.4 billion in 2016,
The Analog Devices acquisition of Linear Technology, a $14.8 billion deal in 2016,
Microchip’s acquisition of Atmel for $3.56 billion in 2016,
Renesas acquiring Intersil for $3.2 billion in 2016,
Infineon later purchased Cypress for $9.78 billion in 2020,
Analog Devices later purchased Maxim Integrated for $20 billion in 2021,
And the large deals go on and on.
We expect these types of deals to continue for many reasons – technology continues to evolve, interest rates are low, and market caps and buyers’ stock prices are high, which allows for easier stock deals and borrowing money. There are also a variety of new markets on the rise, including 5G, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automotive and electric vehicles and IoT sensors, creating many new use cases for semiconductors. Acquisitions are an efficient way to fill out a supplier’s offerings and offer end customers a robust solution offering.
Digi-Key is proud of our very extensive portfolio, which has served us well through all this market consolidation. Whenever there has been an acquisition, we almost always already carried both lines. That has resulted in many synergies for the newly merged companies, and exhibited further proof of the stability that Digi-Key provides our customers.
Of the eight major acquisitions mentioned previously Digi-Key has been the only e-commerce distributor that has carried all the lines when the acquisitions were made. We’re proud to be the only constant on both sides of the ledger and are honored to continue working with the companies as they complete their mergers and transformations.