In February 2022, Intel stated that it planned to close the proposed $5.4 billion acquisition of Tower Semiconductor within a year. But more than 13 months after the announcement, the deal has still not been finalised because China’s State Administration for Market Regulation has not approved it. However, Intel is still confident that it will take control of Tower by the end of June.
Intel Israel this week released a statement stating that the company will continue to work towards closing the deal by the end of next week, but that it may not be cleared until later — possibly in the first half of this year — as the first quarter is about to come to an end (by the end of June 2023).
In buying Tower Semiconductor, Intel can accomplish a number of objectives. A good addition to the company’s current IFS clients will be a contract semiconductor manufacturer with dozens of devoted customers and a steady revenue stream. Second, it will receive fabs with a variety of widely used mature process technologies; the significance of mature nodes should not be understated. Third, the company will acquire a group of seasoned executives with extensive knowledge of contract chipmaking, something the business currently lacks.
The main issue with Intel’s acquisition of Tower Semiconductor is how China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) treated the deal in January by stopping the clock during its review.
The US government’s CHIPS and Science fund is about to award grants to Intel under the condition that it refrain from making investments in China for the ensuing ten years. Meanwhile, China is attempting to take advantage of this by potentially blocking the transaction because it wants Intel to continue investing in Chinese assets.
This week, Intel named a seasoned professional to head its Intel Foundry Service division. The recent appointment appeared to indicate that Intel was not very confident in the outcome of the transaction because it was widely believed that Intel planned to assign a Tower executive to that role after Randhir Thakur resigned in November.
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