6.7 billion US dollars to acquire IDT: Renesas become the biggest winner of wireless charging

Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to spend $6.7 billion to acquire US counterpart IDT, hoping to improve its expertise in the field of driverless cars. Renesas Electronics is second only to NXP in the automotive chip arena, which allows the company to acquire IDT‘s technology in wireless networking and data storage chips that are critical to driverless cars.

First, Renesas 6.7 billion US dollars to acquire IDT
Renesas Electronics will acquire all outstanding shares of IDT in cash at a price of US$49 per share. The stock closed at $42.08 on Monday. The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019.
Renesas Electronics will fund the acquisition through 679 billion yen ($6.1 billion) in bank loans and cash. The company was formed in 2010 by the merger of NEC‘s chip division and Renesas Technology, while Renesas Technology itself was formed by the merger of the chip divisions of Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric.

The company was late in the wave of consolidation in the chip industry because their factory was hit hard by the 2011 Japanese earthquake and it was too late to recover. The company spent $3.2 billion last year to acquire US chipmaker Intersil, hoping to expand its analog chip portfolio, which processes signals such as sound, optics and temperature, and then converts it into digital signals.

Second, Renesas indirectly became a WPC elder member
Super members (elderly members) are the core components of WPC, have absolute right to speak, and have a decisive vote for every ordinary member in the management committee. WPC has set a fixed number of members for elder members. There are 25 super members, and there are no limit on the number of other ordinary members.
The 25 super members of WPC are the representative manufacturers of different aspects of wireless charging, including wireless charging IP manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers, solution manufacturers, telecom operators, terminal companies and so on. The list of WPC elders is as follows:

From the list, you can see that WPC elders include IDT, ConvenientPower, Fulton, MediaTek, Sony, Verizon, Panasonic, etc. Among them, semiconductor component companies occupy 8 seats, and IDT ranks first.

The WPC Wireless Charging Alliance also mentioned in its membership level list that super members (elderly members) have a quota of up to 25. Super members enjoy the voting rights of the WPC Work Steering Group and participate in the management of financial and policy related matters. This interest is not enjoyed by regular members, associate members and small business members. It is worth noting that after the acquisition of IDT, Renesas also indirectly enjoyed the super-member benefits.

Third, IDT wireless charging layout (mobile phone)
In 2017, Apple‘s three iPhones are equipped with wireless charging function, which is obvious. The domestic manufacturers such as Gionee, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Hammer have followed this function one after another. Previously, the charging head network was released according to the WPC Wireless Charging Alliance. Information, summary form form, there are 60 wireless charging phones that have passed Qi certification.

In August, it was again reported that this number has grown to 97. This does not include wireless charging phones that have not yet been certified, and the number is expected to reach hundreds. It is reported that this year, Apple‘s three new iPhones will continue to carry this feature. In the future, more manufacturers will join the wireless charging queue, and more and more mobile phones will be certified by Qi.

Among the more than 60 models that support wireless charging, IDT customers are in addition to Apple and a few brands. Especially Samsung, starting from the first generation of Galaxy Note5 that supports wireless charging, has released more than 20 wireless charging phones in succession over the years. Samsung and IDT have reached a close strategic cooperation agreement; not only that, Samsung has launched all wireless charging and launching. The disc (charging base) is uniformly selected with an IDT chip. It can be said that Samsung is IDT‘s largest customer in the wireless charging market and the most important customer.

Fourth, wireless charging explosive growth
Among the many wireless charging chip manufacturers, IDT‘s performance is unique. By the end of 2016, IDT‘s global wireless charging chip shipments totaled nearly 200 million, and in 2017, it shipped more than 100 million, ranking first in the world. IDT is the only vendor with extensive mass shipment experience in wireless charging receiver chips and system solutions with high technical barriers and relatively stable profits.
According to the data of the WPC Wireless Charging Alliance, the growth trend of the global wireless charging market from 2017 to 2026 is summarized, covering two parts of the transmitter and the receiving end. It can be seen that the two are exponentially increasing year by year, among which the receiving end Shipments are several times the shipments from the transmitter.
As for the specific figures, it is estimated that there will be about 550 million receivers and 200 million transmitters in 2018, and it is estimated that by 2020, there will be 1 billion receivers and 400 million transmitters, which will almost double! In 2025, there will be 2 billion receivers and 800 million transmitters, which will double again!
In fact, the reason why the wireless charging market is so hot, and its prospects are optimistic, there is a reason. According to the statistics of the charging head network, as of August 2018, the number of members of the Wireless Charging Alliance (WPC) has increased to 628. Last September, the news that Apple‘s new iPhone was equipped with wireless charging was confirmed. At that time, there were only 251 WPC members, and now the number of members has doubled directly, which directly reflects the degree of fire in the wireless charging market.

Fifth, Renesas has a complete power product line
Earlier, Renesas spent $3.2 billion last year to acquire US chip maker Intersil. This year, it invested a large amount of 6.7 billion dollars to acquire IDT. The two purchases and purchases totaled 9.9 billion dollars.
So far, Renesas has become an indispensable force in the power industry, whether it is digital or analog, through continuous integration. Although Japanese chip companies are constantly seeking transformation, Renesas has already entered the forefront of the industry through mergers and acquisitions of high-quality assets, and has the same competitive capital with TI, ON, and NXP in the wireless charging field.