14 DAY TRIAL // Texas Instruments may have already controlled the largest share of the analog chip market, but this didn't stop it from offering to buy National Semiconductor for a huge sum of money about six months ago.
Acquisitions are a common thing on the IT industry, especially ever since the establishment of the patent system.
A new USPTO law may have been ratified, but this doesn't mean the intellectual property system isn't still in place.
This means that, in order to have the necessary technology for their purposes, companies have to either license patents or buy their holders.
Texas Instruments chose the latter option when it came to getting access to the IP of National Semiconductor.
The deal was announced about six months ago, but only now has it been completed, according to the company's press release.
"National is now a strategic part of TI's Analog growth engine. Together, we're focused on accelerating semiconductor innovation to improve performance and power efficiency for our customers' electronic systems," said Rich Templeton, TI's chairman, president and chief executive officer.
"The closing of this transaction allows TI to expand its market presence with more leading-edge analog products, greater manufacturing capacity, and the largest sales and applications team in the industry. Together, we will serve more customers in more markets."
For those that want the numbers, the buyout was conditional on TI paying NS the sum of $6.5 billion (4.85 billion Euro).
Henceforth, NS will be a branch of TI and already accounts for over half of the latter's revenue. The National Semiconductor brand will go on existing as well.
As for everything else, National Semiconductor brought about 5,000 employees to Texas Instruments' fold. The product portfolio has also expanded (it is now at 45,000), among other things. What remains is to see what things the team creates from now on.