Maxlinear eyes Exar with $700 million in hand

Article By : Vivek Nanda

The acquisition will help Maxlinear diversify revenues by end-customers and addressable markets and expand its analog and mixed-signal area of play.

Maxlinear Inc., cash in hand—no less than $700 million—is acquiring Exar Corp.

Maxlinear is an RFIC and mixed-signal IC vendor that targets home and wired and wireless infrastructure markets. Exar is a designer and developer of analog and mixed-signal ICs and sub-systems.

The acquisition will help increase Maxlinear’s revenue scale, diversifying revenues by end-customers and addressable markets and expand its analog and mixed-signal area of play with its existing customer platforms. Exar adds a portfolio of high-performance analog and mixed-signal products constituting power management and interface technologies that suit wireless and wireline communications infrastructure, broadband access, industrial, enterprise networking and automotive platforms. At this time, Maxlinear is eyeing cross-selling opportunities and distribution channels and plans on leveraging combined technological expertise.

Under the acquisition agreement that involves cash for shares, Maxlinear will pay Exar $13 per share for a total price of about $700 million. Maxlinear will fund the acquisition from the combined balance sheets and a $425 million term loan. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017, subject to U.S. regulatory approvals. As a result of the combination, Maxlinear expects to realise annualised run-rate synergies of $15 million within 12 months of closing.