Infineon Technologies AG, the integrated circuit maker whose parent company is German conglomerate Siemens AG, has agreed to purchase U.S.-based Catamaran Communications Inc. in an all-stock deal valued at US$250 million, Infineon announced Monday.
The acquisition of Catamaran, a maker of integrated circuits for optical networks, will strengthen Infineon’s position in the market for line cards with speeds of 40G bps (bits per second) and higher, Infineon said in a statement. The merger of the two companies will give Infineon a complete line card product line, from the optics to the network processor interface, the company added.
The San Jose, Calif.-based Catamaran was launched in Oct. 1999 and currently employs over 50 people, Infineon said. Pending standard regulatory approvals, Catamaran will become a fully owned subsidiary of Infineon, the company said.
Infineon, which went public early last year, announced last Tuesday in its second quarterly financial report that it is moving away from its reliance on DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chips, due to a substantial drop in market prices.
Infineon, in Munich, can be reached at http://www.infineon.com/. Siemens, in Munich, can be reached at http://www.siemens.de/. Catamaran Communications, in San Jose, can be contacted at http://www.catamarancom.com/.
