Infineon to acquire Wolfspeed for $850m in cash

Dr. Reinhard Ploss, CEO, Infineon Technologies, commented: “Joining forces with Wolfspeed represents a unique growth opportunity. Wolfspeed’s and Infineon’s businesses and expertise are highly complementary, bringing together industry leading experts for compound semiconductors. This will enable us to create additional value for our customers with the broadest and deepest portfolio of innovative technologies and products in compound semiconductors available in the market. With Wolfspeed we will become number one in SiC-based power semiconductors. We also want to become number one in RF power. This will accelerate the market introduction of these innovative technologies, addressing the needs of modern society - such as energy efficiency, connectivity and mobility.”

“After much consideration and due diligence over the past year, we concluded that selling Wolfspeed to Infineon was the best decision for our shareholders, employees and customers," said Chuck Swoboda, Chairman and CEO, Cree. "We believe that Wolfspeed will now be able to more aggressively commercialise its unique silicon carbide and gallium nitride technology as part of Infineon.”

“By joining the Infineon team, Wolfspeed will now have all the advantages of a global company in our sector, including the ability to leverage Infineon’s market reach and infrastructure. With Infineon’s complementary culture and additional investment, we’ll be better positioned to unlock the potential of our portfolio and our people,” added Frank Plastina, CEO, Wolfspeed.

Wolfspeed is based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA, and has been a part of Cree for almost three decades. Wolfspeed is a premier provider of SiC-based power and GaN-on-SiC-based RF power solutions. This also includes the related core competencies in wafer substrate manufacturing for SiC, as well as for SiC with a monocrystalline GaN layer for RF power applications. With these competencies, more than 550 highly skilled employees and a strong IP portfolio of approximately 2,000 patents and patent applications, this deal complements Infineon’s previous acquisition of International Rectifier in early 2015. Wolfspeed’s SiC-based product portfolio ideally adds to Infineon’s offering.

Power management solutions based on compound semiconductors have several advantages enabling Infineon’s customers to develop systems with higher energy-efficiency, smaller footprints and lower system costs. Combining the comprehensive portfolios of technologies, products and manufacturing capabilities, Infineon and Wolfspeed will accelerate the development of components enabling customers to develop differentiating systems. Major areas where the applications will profit from SiC are renewables and especially automotive. Both areas benefit from the increased power density and improved efficiency. In automotive it fits well with the recent increased commitment of the industry to plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles. Combining both portfolios and competencies will significantly accelerate the time-to-market for new products based on compound semiconductors.

Next-gen cellular infrastructure standards such as 5G and beyond will use frequencies up to 80GHz. Only advanced compound semiconductors can deliver the required efficiencies at these high frequencies. GaN-on-Si allows higher levels of integration and offers its advantages at operating frequencies of up to 10GHz. GaN-on-SiC enables maximum efficiency at frequencies of up to 80GHz. Both technologies are crucial for next generation cellular infrastructure standards. Together with its Si-based LDMOS products Infineon is the industry’s most complete provider for RF power components.

The combined portfolio advances Infineon’s strategic “Product to System” approach. Additionally, Infineon will benefit from accelerating the adoption of SiC- and GaN-based components in early-adopter markets, e.g. electro-mobility, high-end PV inverter, EV charging infrastructure and RF power components in cellular infrastructure.

The business to be acquired by Infineon has generated pro-forma revenues of $173m in the twelve months ending March 27, 2016. The acquisition will be immediately accretive to Infineon’s adjusted earnings-per-share and margin. Infineon will fund the transaction with bank financing of $720m and $130m of cash-on-hand. Infineon will maintain its strong balance sheet after the cash- and debt-financed transaction. Infineon’s capital structure will stay well within the previously communicated targets of €1bn gross cash plus 10 to 20% of revenue, and no more than two times the gross debt-to-EBITDA.

Cree’s Board of Directors and Infineon’s Supervisory Board have approved the acquisition. The closing of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals in various jurisdictions and is expected by the end of calendar year 2016.