Power Integrations agrees to acquire CT-Concept Technologie

SAN JOSE, USA: Power Integrations, the leader in high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, has signed an agreement to acquire privately held CT-Concept Technologie AG for approximately 105 million Swiss francs in cash, or about $115 million, net of cash assumed.

Founded in 1986 and based in Biel, Switzerland, CONCEPT is a developer of highly integrated, energy-efficient drivers for high-voltage IGBT modules. The company’s products are used in a range of high-voltage power-conversion applications including industrial motor drives, renewable energy generation, electric trains and trams, high-voltage DC transmission, electric cars and medical equipment. CONCEPT employs approximately 65 people and holds 14 patents with additional patents pending.

Balu Balakrishnan, president and CEO of Power Integrations, commented: “Our strategic focus is to offer the most innovative high-voltage power-conversion products across an ever-wider range of power levels and applications. CONCEPT fits perfectly within this strategy. Their innovative products bring integration, reliability and energy efficiency to very high-power applications – the same attributes we bring to lower-power applications.

“CONCEPT’s addressable market, already approaching $500 million, continues to expand with the growth in renewable energy, electric vehicles and high-efficiency industrial motors, and the efficacy of these clean technologies depends on cost-effective, efficient, reliable power electronics like CONCEPT’s market-leading IGBT drivers. These dynamics make CONCEPT an extremely attractive business and an exciting addition to our company.”

CONCEPT’s management team and employees will remain at the company’s Biel headquarters, which will become Power Integrations’ center of excellence for high-voltage driver design. Wolfgang Ademmer will continue as president of CONCEPT and will become a VP of Power Integrations, reporting directly to Balakrishnan.

Ademmer commented: “We are very pleased to become part of Power Integrations, a company that shares our singular focus on delivering the most innovative power-conversion products for our respective end markets. Power Integrations’ scale and vast customer base will help us accelerate the adoption of our products around the world. As part of Power Integrations, we can strengthen our unique position in the value chain providing innovative driver technology compatible with all major IGBT module manufacturers.”

Based on full-year 2011 results, Power Integrations estimates that the acquisition will add approximately 10 percent to its annual revenues, and expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to its non-GAAP gross margin, operating margin and earnings per share. The company expects the transaction to close during the second quarter of 2012.

In conjunction with its approval of this transaction, Power Integrations’ board of directors has cancelled the company’s previously announced $30 million share-repurchase authorization.