As previously predicted, Intel plans to acquire Altera. The two companies announced this morning an agreement under which Intel would acquire Altera for $54 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $16.7 billion. Intel said the acquisition would couple Intel’s products with Altera’s FPGA technology to meet customer needs in the data center and Internet of Things market segments. Intel said it plans to offer FPGA products with Xeon processors as customized integrated products.
“Intel’s growth strategy is to expand our core assets into profitable, complementary market segments,” said Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, in a press release. “With this acquisition, we will harness the power of Moore’s Law to make the next generation of solutions not just better, but able to do more. Whether to enable new growth in the network, large cloud data centers or IoT segments, our customers expect better performance at lower costs. This is the promise of Moore’s Law and it’s the innovation enabled by Intel and Altera joining forces. We look forward to working with the talented team at Altera to deliver this value to our customers and stockholders.”
“Given our close partnership, we’ve seen firsthand the many benefits of our relationship with Intel—the world’s largest semiconductor company and a proven technology leader, and look forward to the many opportunities we will have together,” added John Daane, president, CEO, and chairman of Altera. “We believe that as part of Intel we will be able to develop innovative FPGAs and system-on-chips for our customers in all market segments. Together, we expect to drive meaningful value for our customers, partners and employees around the world. This is an exciting transaction that provides immediate and significant value to our stockholders. We look forward to working closely with the Intel team to ensure a smooth transition and complete the transaction as quickly as possible.”
Altera will become an Intel business unit to facilitate continuity of existing and new customer sales and support. Intel said it plans to continue support and development for Altera’s ARM-based and power-management product lines. The acquisition could provide increased competition for FPGA maker Xilinx with its ARM-based Xynq All Programmable SoC portfolio.
The news of the acquisition follows Avago’s announcement that it would acquire Broadcom.
