News: Microelectronics
22 February 2022
Sivers Semiconductors completes acquisition of 5G mmWave firm MixComm
Sivers Semiconductors AB of Kista, Sweden (which supplies chips and integrated modules) has completed the previously announced acquisition of fabless semiconductor company MixComm Inc of Chatham, NJ, USA (with design centers in Oregon and California) to strengthen its position in 5G, SATCOM and radar markets for current and future high-frequency mmWave products. The acquisition provides a greatly increased customer base, expanded capacity, a broad IP portfolio and a strong presence across the USA, Europe and Asia.
The purchase has been satisfied through a cash payment of US$22.5m (about SEK212m at the current exchange rate), and the issuance of 39,187,320 new ordinary shares in the company, corresponding to a dilution of about 18.3% (based on the number of shares in issue after completion). The shares issued to the sellers are covered by a lock-up of 12 months for 50% of the consideration shares and 18 months for the remaining 50%. A further up to 6,993,007 newly issued shares may be issued to the sellers subject to the satisfaction of certain commercial customer milestones within nine months from signing.
The selling shareholders of MixComm include its founders, employees, Kairos Ventures (a US venture capital investor focused on identifying and commercializing scientific discoveries) and GlobalFoundries. Kairos will become a significant shareholder in Sivers after completion of the acquisition. Kairos Ventures’ chief operating & financial officer Todd Thomson has also joined Sivers’ board of directors, as approved at the EGM last November.
MixComm will be part of the Sivers Wireless business area within Sivers Semiconductors. Overall, the new expanded group is expected to create conditions for accelerated growth.
Through the merger, Sivers Wireless will increase its total number of design wins by about 70% to 44 and double the number of design wins that are expected to enter volume production within the next 12 months, from 8 to 16 in total. MixComm currently has 18 design wins, including one with a leading tier-1 5G infrastructure customer and a significant pipeline of potential new customer opportunities.
“We have now received regulatory approval from The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to complete this transaction. We have seen very good progress within MixComm since we agreed the deal last October and are now looking forward to starting to deliver the very significant synergy benefits that we see from the combination," says Sivers Semiconductors’ group CEO Anders Storm.
MixComm was founded in 2017 based on more than 10 years of development at Columbia University led by Dr Krishnaswamy (co-founder & chief technology officer) through externally funded research projects totalling $94m across all projects and participants). The firm is an active US participant in the 5G BFIC (repeaters/base stations), SATCOM and radar verticals. Most employees hold a PhD, and the company is the only mmWave company selected to join the 5G Open Innovation Lab founded by T-Mobile and Intel. The flagship BFIC SUMMIT 2629 was the recipient of numerous ‘Best Products’ citations in 2020, including ‘The Broadband Innovation of the Year’ from the Mobile Breakthrough Awards. MixComm has established partnerships with minority investor GlobalFoundries for RF-SOI fabrication, packaging and test services, and with Richardson RFPD for distribution and logistics globally. Both the GlobalFoundries and Richardson RFPD collaborations will continue under the Sivers Wireless brand and be expanded to all products by the company.
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