Key ASIC acquires Taiwan's ASIC firm Gateway Silicon

SANTA CLARA, USA & KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Key ASIC Berhad has signed a definitive agreement with the shareholders of Gateway Silicon Inc. (GSI) to acquire up to 100 percent of the company in a cash transaction.

GSI is a subsidiary of Macronix International Co. Ltd. a semiconductor IDM headquartered in Taiwan. Macronix ended calendar year 2008 with revenues of NT$23.28B or approximately $710M.

Gateway Silicon is a professional IC design service company founded in August 2006 in Hsin Chu Science Park, Taiwan. GSI focuses in research and development of analog and digital IP for consumer ICs. GSI has developed a significant portfolio of analog and memory IP focused in the graphics and video applications.

GSI provides SOC implementation and IC turnkey design services. Through GSI’s proprietary platform solutions, competitive cost structure, and integrated turnkey services, customers benefit from high quality IC products developed and delivered on schedule to meet the customer’s time-to-market requirements. GSI has offices in Japan and Taiwan.

“Key ASIC is a leading player in the ASIC design industry. We are pleased to merge with Key ASIC to build a bigger and stronger company that will enable all of us to play a more significant role in the ASIC design business. Key ASIC has very strong design experience in advanced technologies such as 65nm and 45nm, and this will be a big value add to GSI’s existing customer base,” said J.P. Peng, CEO of GSI.

“We have built up a very rich portfolio of analog IP blocks and we have a very strong analog circuit design team that will be a valuable asset to the combined entity,” he added.

“We share the same vision with the key shareholders of GSI in building a strong ASIC design business for consumer and communications applications globally. This merger is a synergy of two companies with complementary skills and technologies. This merger will enable us to expand and better serve our customers,” said Eg Kah Yee, Chairman of Key ASIC. “This strategic exercise is in line with our growth plans,” he added.

With this acquisition, Key ASIC expands its position in the ASIC markets of Japan and Taiwan. This acquisition is expected to bring high growth in 2010 and beyond. Key ASIC expects to accelerate its growth through additional synergistic mergers and acquisitions.