13 March 2012

Spire Semiconductor sold for $8.5m to Masimo

Spire Corp of Bedford, MA, USA, which provides solar photovoltaic manufacturing equipment and systems as well as biomedical processing services, has sold its foundry services business Spire Semiconductor LLC of Hudson, NH, to Masimo Semiconductor Inc, a newly formed subsidiary of Masimo Corp of Irvine, CA, which was founded in 1989 and provides non-invasive monitoring technologies for patient care.

The selling price was $8.5m: $8m plus the assumption of $500,000 in liabilities, with the cash portion being reduced by retained cash and liabilities assumed by Masimo in excess of $500,000. Spire hence received about $7.2m in cash and Masimo assumed about $1.2m in liabilities. Of the purchase price, about 10% of the cash portion was deposited into an indemnity escrow account for 15 months.

“With the divestiture of our semiconductor business to Masimo, Spire has strengthened its financial position and can now more aggressively pursue opportunities in its solar and biomedical businesses,” says Spire Corp chairman & CEO Roger G. Little.

“For the past several years, Masimo has been one of our largest customers and is an ideal strategic buyer for the business,” Little believes. “Spire Semiconductor has developed a superior intellectual property portfolio and advanced optoelectronic technology that is well suited for Masimo's groundbreaking non-invasive patient monitoring technologies... Masimo can now leverage Spire Semiconductor's strengths for an even greater impact,” he adds.

The semiconductor business specializes in wafer epitaxy, foundry services and device fabrication for biomedical, telecoms, consumer products and other markets. It will continue to develop custom optoelectronic components, concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) cells, photocathodes, PIN diodes, avalanche photodiodes (APDs), laser power converters, thermo photovoltaics and laser diodes, says Masimo.

“We have been extremely impressed with their technology and the service they have provided to us as a customer,” says Masimo’s CEO & chairman Joe Kiani. “We plan to continue building on the proprietary technology base established by Spire Semiconductor,” he adds. “Further advancements in non-invasive blood constituent monitoring technologies are unlikely using off-the-shelf optoelectronic components... The acquisition will permit us to focus the operation on Masimo’s custom component requirements and accelerate technology advancements in our non-invasive blood monitoring products,” Kiani comments. “Masimo Semiconductor will “usher in a new era of technologic advancements for Masimo and ultimately our customers and patients.”

Tags: Spire Wafer epitaxy

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