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Freescale Semiconductor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. | |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | Spin-off from Motorola in 2004 |
| Headquarters |  Austin, Texas, USA |
| Key people | Michel Mayer, CEO Lisa Su, CTO |
| Industry | Semiconductors |
| Revenue |  $6.4 billion USD (2006) |
| Operating income | $600.00 million USD (2005) |
| Net income | $563.00 million USD (2005) |
| Employees | 24,000 |
| Slogan | Making the world a smarter place |
| Website | www.freescale.com |
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. is an American semiconductor manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola in 2004. Freescale focuses their integrated circuit products on the automotive, embedded and communications markets. Freescale is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.
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Motorola announced that their semiconductor division would be divested on October 6, 2003 to create Freescale. Freescale completed its IPO on July 16, 2004 at an IPO price of $13. In its announcement, it estimated the stock price to be $17.50-$19.50 but following a cooling of the market towards tech stocks, it lowered its price to $13. Existing shareholders of Motorola stock received 0.110415 shares of Freescale stock for every share of Motorola stock as a dividend which was distributed on December 2, 2004 Motorola Shareholder Letter.
Freescale is the leading semiconductor supplier to the automotive industry. Modern cars use electronics to manage the engine for peak performance and to keep emissions low, and Freescale is the largest supplier of engine system microcontrollers in the world. Automotive safety systems such as anti-lock brakes and airbags also use microcontrollers and analog power management circuits from Freescale. Freescale also produces a range of integrated sensor products such as accelerometers and pressure sensors.
Other major parts of Freescale's semiconductor business are wireless and mobile products, and networking chips. Freescale had also been a source of PowerPC microprocessors (ICs) for Apple Computer's PowerBooks and Mac mini products until the Apple Intel transition in 2006. They joined Power.org in 2006 as a founding member to develop and promote the use of Power Architecture.
In 2006 the company announced a new Integrated Circuit (IC) which stores information without requiring continuous power. The technology, called magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM), stores data by relying on magnetic properties instead of an electrical charge. Freescale started commercial shipments of the 4-Mbit MRAM IC on July 10, 2006, with small volume sales priced at $25 per chip.
On Friday, September 15, 2006 Freescale agreed to accept a buyout for the sum of $17.6 billion ($40 per share) by a consortium led by Blackstone Group LP. Share prices of $13 at the July 2004 IPO had risen to $39.35 in afterhours trading that Friday when the news, rumored that week, broke. A special shareholders meeting on November 13, 2006 voted to accept the buyout offer. The purchase, which closed on December 1, 2006, is reportedly the largest private buyout of a technology company and one of the ten largest buyouts of all time.[1][2][3][4]
- ^ Freescale sells itself for $17.6bn cash – or more 15th September 2006
- ^ Freescale Took Scenic Buyout Route October 4, 2006
- ^ Freescale Semiconductor Bought Out by Blackstone for $17.6Billion September 25, 2006
- ^ Consortium of Private Equity Firms Completes Acquisition of Freescale Semiconductor December 1, 2006