TXN Storage Products Division Acquires ADPT SCSI/FC Development
eetimes.com
Texas Instruments acquires Adaptec chip group
By Stephan Ohr
EE Times
(11/10/98, 3:20 p.m. EDT)
TUSTIN, Calif. — Texas Instruments Inc. has acquired what it calls the “high-end technology solutions operation” of Adaptec Corp. (Milpitas, Calif.).
The group, located in Irvine, Calif., is developing 1-Gbyte/second and 2.5-Gbytes/s transceivers that connect SCSI drive arrays with Fibre Channel cables in mainframe computing environments. The acquisition also gives TI system simulation software capabilities for disk drives, and gives TI's Storage Products Division (the former Silicon Systems Inc.) additional strength in high-end disk-drive components, said Russ Garcia, vice president of marketing for the division, based here.
Though terms of the agreement were not disclosed, an Adaptec spokesman said the company was under pressure to shed operations that would not be profitable in the near term. The company's revenues for the second fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30 were $144 million, down 48 percent from $278 million for the same quarter last year. With various write downs, the company reported a net loss of $24 million, or $0.22 per share. The company needs to “refocus,” said Larry Boucher, interim chief executive officer, in an October 22 statement. The sale of the high-end semiconductor development group to TI is thus seen as part of a broader divestment program that saw the spin off from Adaptec of a satellite network system group and of another storage products program.
For its part, TI has a strong cash position. As part of its agreement with Adaptec, TI will license some of Adaptec's other storage interface properties. Approximately 35 people from Adaptec's technical staff will become a part of Texas Instruments' Storage Products Division. |
