Japan's Renesas acquires chip specialist Dialog in 4.9-bn-euro deal

BERLIN: Japanese electronics company Renesas will acquire its German-British competitor Dialog, a semiconductor specialist and Apple supplier, in a 4.9-billion-euro ($5.9-billion) deal announced by the two companies Monday.

According to a Dialog statement, Renesas will pay 67.50 euros for each Dialog share between now and the end of the year, approximately 20 percent more than the closing price on Friday.

The two groups, which have collaborated for a number of years, both produce chips for the automobile industry, which has been hit by a semiconductor shortage.

Major car producers such as Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen have all had to trim or halt production due to the semiconductor crunch, which stems in part from outsized chip demand for game consoles and other consumer electronics during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Bringing together Renesas and Dialog will extend the combined group's reach to a broader customer base and open up additional growth potential," the two companies said in the statement.

The acquisition still needs to be approved by shareholders as well as competition authorities in various countries.

It follows a spate of semiconductor deals in 2020 while the global chip-manufacturing industry is expected to see record revenue this year.

Dialog is known primarily as a supplier of specialist chips for Apple, a client which accounted for 75 percent of its revenues in 2017 and 2018.

Yet Apple's announcement around that time that it will look to produce its own chips led to a fall in Dialog's stock price and questions over its future.

At a press conference on Monday, Renesas director Hidetoshi Shibata said that Dialog would continue to diversify and expand its client base with a view to reducing its dependence on Apple to around 25 percent by 2023.