( BW)(CA-TESSERA-INC) Tessera Announces $29.4 Million in Mezzanine Financing -- IP Company Meets Growing Demand for Its CSP Technology
Business Editors and High-Tech Writers
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2000--Tessera(R) Inc., the semiconductor industry's leading provider and licensor of chip-scale packaging (CSP) technology, today announced that it has closed its mezzanine round of financing, securing $29.4 million in funding.
The company, having successfully developed a broad infrastructure for CSP, is gearing up to meet growing customer demand for its technology. Driven by the industry's need for wireless communications and Internet access devices to be smaller, faster and cheaper, the company will expand its efforts in marketing, business development, technology development, services and intellectual property (IP) enforcement.
Additionally, Tessera reported that its revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999 grew 85 percent over the third quarter. This growth can be attributed primarily to royalties generated by ramp in production of ICs using Tessera's CSP technology, now shipping over 50 million devices per quarter.
These ICs include SRAMs from Samsung and Flash chips from Intel and other manufacturers, that are used in wireless handsets, and Rambus(R) DRAMs that will be used in PCs and the new Sony PlayStation(R)2 game console. Tessera's fourth quarter royalties grew more than 200 percent, sequentially. Tessera now has a diversified revenue stream consisting of IP licensing, royalties and services.
"We're well positioned to leverage our technology and IP to meet growing customer demand, penetrate new markets, form strategic partnerships and drive standards in chip-scale packaging," said Bruce McWilliams, president and CEO of Tessera. "The financing will accelerate the company's evolution from a technology-driven company to a market-driven company."
The funding comes from a diverse group of institutional and strategic investors and is underwritten by Warburg Dillon Read LLC. Tessera's primary existing investors participated in this latest round of financing, including CSK Venture Capital Co. Ltd., Investor AB, Patricof & Co. Ventures, Inc. and Ticonderoga Capital.
Tessera's new investors include Landmark Partners and two strategic investors -- LG Electronics and Rambus Inc. These strategic investments highlight the industry's confidence in Tessera, not only in its technology leadership, but in the company's management and its vision for leveraging its IP.
"Rambus' interface technology requires both the chip design and the chip package to be optimized to deliver the performance required by the computing, communications and consumer markets," said Subodh Toprani, senior vice president of New Ventures at Rambus Inc.
"Tessera's CSP technology will help enable us and the semiconductor industry to meet the ever increasing performance demands of the information age."
Tessera's IP portfolio consists of broad, fundamental patents covering the heart of chip-scale packaging -- "Compliant CSP" technology. Tessera's technology places its patented compliant layer between the silicon die and the package substrate to absorb the stress caused by the different rates of thermal expansion between the die and the circuit board.
As package dimensions shrink, this stress causes the solder balls to detach or break. Tessera's technology accommodates for this stress in the compliant layer essentially enabling the smallest possible semiconductor package dimensions with high reliability.
Tessera has also developed and patented related technology in the area of multi-layer substrates, tools and materials, equipment, thermal solutions, probes and test sockets. Tessera's IP portfolio includes 92 issued and 147 pending U.S. patents in CSP technology.
"The semiconductor industry is currently going through an unprecedented period of change, driven by consumer demand for wireless communications and Internet access anytime, anywhere," said Gregory L. Mischou, executive director of U.S. equity research in the Technology Group at Warburg Dillon Read.
"As these devices continue to become smaller, faster and cheaper, manufacturers will increasingly rely on chip-scale packaging to help solve performance, size and cost issues. Tessera is uniquely positioned to supply the semiconductor industry with the latest, most advanced chip-scale packaging IP."
About Tessera, Inc.
Tessera is the leading developer and licensor of chip-scale packaging technology to the semiconductor industry. The company's technology sets new standards in performance, reliability, size and cost, and is ideal for high performance and space-constrained applications such as wireless handsets, PCs, game consoles and other devices used to communicate and access the Internet.
Tessera's flagship CSP technology, the uBGA(R) package, has been adopted as the de facto standard for a number of semiconductor applications.
Tessera currently licenses its advanced packaging technology to over 30 assembly and semiconductor companies, including Amkor, ASE, AMD, ChipMOS, ChipPAC, EEMS, Hitachi, Hyundai, Infineon, Intel, IPAC, LG, Meicer, Mitsui, Samsung, Sharp, Shinko, Sony, SPIL, ST Microelectronics, Texas Instruments and Toshiba. Tessera is based in San Jose. Additional information is available at www.tessera.com.
Note to Editors: Tessera, uBGA and the Tessera logo are registered trademarks of Tessera, Inc. PlayStation is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Inc. Rambus is a registered trademark of Rambus Inc. All other brand and product names may be trademarks of their respective companies.
All instances of the word "BGA" should be preceded by the micron symbol. It should read "(micron)BGA."
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