The Korean image sensor maker said it is making its second acquisition in as many months, this time the Silicon Valley maker of CMOS image sensors.

Korean image sensor and display driver maker MagnaChip Semiconductor said today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire IC Media Corp., a developer of CMOS image sensors, for an undisclosed amount.

The transaction remains subject to certain closing conditions. IC Media, a fabless chipmaker founded in 1998, has design wins at more than 25 customers, according to MagnaChip. IC Media introduced its first single-chip imaging device, the ICM-105A, in the fall of 2000.

The company has grown into an established volume supplier of leading small pixel geometry, high-resolution CMOS image sensors for cell phones, digital still cameras, PC cameras, and other mobile imaging applications, with shipments to date of VGA, 1.3 megapixel, 2 megapixel, and 3 megapixel CMOS image sensors, MagnaChip said. IC Media has 90 employees worldwide and is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif.

"The acquisition of IC Media immediately will provide advanced technology and intellectual property, experienced engineering and development resources, key products and customer relationships which will help further strengthen MagnaChip's ability to serve the needs of its expanding global customer base in the attractive, rapidly evolving CMOS image sensor market," Youm Huh, president and CEO of MagnaChip Semiconductor, said in a statement.

Robert Krakauer, MagnaChip VP of strategic operations and CFO, suggested that IC Media's presence in the cell phone camera market was a driver behind the acquisition.

"This acquisition will accelerate several strategic initiatives for the company, including our drive to be the leader in the Camera Phone market, to build a strategic design center in the United States to better support our customers and to provide us abase to attract additional design engineers to complement our significant design expertise in Korea and Japan," Krakauer said in a statement.

"This will also expand our sales and field applications engineering organizations in Taiwan, China and Europe. We expect upon completion of our acquisition of ICMedia, together with our recent acquisition of ISRON in Japan, we will have successfully expanded our global capabilities to support our customers anywhere in the world."

MagnaChip was one of the quickest growing chipmakers last year, in terms of sales growth rates; its 2004 sales grew 90 percent from those in 2003, according to market researcher VLSI Research Inc.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved