Industry Expert Blogs
Analysis: FPGA vendor to buy IC vendor Silicon ImageSemiWiki - Eric EsteveJan. 28, 2015 |
Interesting news today : Lattice Semiconductor, FPGA vendor is buying Silicon Image. In fact, Silicon Image is a chip vendor, but also an innovator, licensing well known IP like HDMI, MHL and more. If we consider the amount paid for Silicon Image ($600 million), compared with the last full year revenue, $276M in 2014, that’s a 2.2X multiplicator… not really a success story for Silicon Image !
I am following the company since 2007, as I wanted to understand the SATA IP market and Silicon Image was the #1 with 80% market share or $16M on a $20M market. Thus I have continued to look at the company, as HDMI technology was starting a penetration which is today at 100% in many segments like PC or TV, and very strong in adjacent segments like Mobile. At that time Silicon Image was credited to (almost) 100% on the HDMI IP segment, no surprise.