GSA reports semiconductor funding increased 8.3 percent YoY in 2010

DALLAS, USA: GSA released the December/Q4/year-end statistics from its Global Semiconductor Funding, IPO and M&A update, including:

* In December 2010, five semiconductor companies (i.e., fabless companies and semiconductor suppliers) raised $33 million, a dollar amount decrease of 61.1 percent from November 2010 and 67.7 percent from December 2009.
* In Q4 2010, 24 semiconductor companies raised $198.2 million, a dollar amount decrease of 6.4 percent over Q3 2010 and 25.2 percent over Q4 2009.
* For the 12 months ending December 31, 2010, 121 semiconductor deals raised $1214.1 million, a dollar amount increase of 8.3 percent YoY.
* After raising $50 million in an extended fourth round of funding in January, California-based light-emitting diode (LED) chipmaker BridgeLux was the funding leader in 2010.
* Fifteen semiconductor initial public offerings (IPOs) priced in 2010, a big jump from the two pricings in 2009.
* In December 2010, Taiwan-based MStar Semiconductor and SemiLEDS successfully priced their IPOs.
* In December 2010, the number of semiconductor mergers and acquisitions (M&As) announced (i.e., M&As of entire fabless, integrated device manufacturer (IDM) and semiconductor supplier companies, not sectors/product lines or foundry facilities) decreased by nine MoM and four YoY.
* In Q4 2010, 27 semiconductor M&A deals were announced – an increase of one QoQ and a decrease of two YoY.
* For the 12 months ending December 31, 2010, 109 semiconductor M&A deals were announced, a 10.1 percent increase YoY.
* The largest semiconductor M&A announced in 2010 was Intel’s greatly debated purchase of security software vendor McAfee for $7.7 billion. Micron Technology’s acquisition of Numonyx for $1.2 billion was the second largest M&A deal.