The takeover appetite in the chip sector doesn’t seem settled yet. The Japanese Renesas announced that they were talking to the British Dialog Semiconductor about a takeover. The American tech company Apple is one of the main customers of the British chip designer.
Renesas has paid EUR 4.9 billion for the company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. With this, the Japanese offer a 20% premium on the closing price of Dialog on Friday. There is no guarantee that the deal will go through, as the talks are still ongoing.
Dialog’s shares have increased by about a quarter since the beginning of the year, stimulated by the strong demand for Apple’s 5G handsets. Furthermore, takeover speculation around Dialog has been singing around for a long time. This is again part of a broader development in the chip market. Last year, mergers and acquisitions in the sector amounted to USD 144 billion. That amount was twice as high as a year earlier.