Calvatec eyes rapid growth after takeover by US giant

Semiconductor manufacturer Maxim Integrated Products, with sales last year of $1.9 billion, announced yesterday it had bought Calvatec for an undisclosed sum.

The Californian giant, which picked up six smaller firms in a global acquisition spree during the past four years, was attracted by Edinburgh-based Calvatec's expertise in analog chip design, used in consumer electronics, and its highly-skilled staff.

Andy Cringean, chief executive of Calvatec, said the takeover would help the company he founded with fellow engineer Ed Granville in 2008 to expand. "When we originally set up the company the intention was to grow into a significant Scottish electronics business," he said.

"Having an organisation the size of Maxim behind Calvatec will allow the growth of the company beyond those original plans. It brings significant opportunities for us in Scotland and the wider sphere."

Cringean will continue to lead the Calvatec unit following the takeover. "It's very much work as usual and will be for some time," he said. Neither company would reveal the sale price, but the firm's 15 staff could be in for a windfall, as all were shareholders.

Set up from intellectual property independently developed by Cringean and Granville, Calvatec has been working on technology for the semiconductor industry that could cut the cost of the increasingly complex chips found at the core of modern electronics products. The company has been actively trading since January 2009.

It was given a 600,000 award from Smart:Scotland recently, a programme which provides financial assistance to small and medium enterprises, to support projects which represent a "significant technological advance" for the UK sector or industry concerned.

Founded 28 years ago, Maxim designs, manufactures, and sells high-performance semiconductor products. It specialises in analog and mixed-signal chips for the industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets.

By combining a range of disparate analog functions on to a single chip, it aims to help customers get to market faster with systems that are smaller and consume less power.

It has recently been increasing investment in research and development to bring new products to the market.

The company has about 9,200 employees, with more than half its design centres located outside the US. It has a technology centre in Cambridge and a sales office in Reading.

Maxim is listed on the NASDAQ 100, Russell 1000, and MSCI USA indices.