Dialog Semiconductor

Dialog Semiconductor Plc is an Anglo-German semiconductor-based system designer and manufacturer. The company is headquartered in the United Kingdom in Reading, with a global sales, R&D and marketing organization. Dialog creates highly integrated application-specific standard product (ASSP) and application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs), optimised for smartphones, computing, Internet of Things devices, LED solid-state lighting (SSL), and smart home applications.

Dialog Semiconductor Plc

Dialog Semiconductor Corporate HQ in Reading
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Electrical engineering
Founded	1985; 39 years ago (1985)
Headquarters	Reading, United Kingdom (operational), London, United Kingdom (registered office)
Key people	Rich Beyer (Chairman),[1] Jalal Bagherli (CEO),[2] Wissam Jabre (CFO),[2] Mark Tyndall (SVP Corporate Development) [2]
Products	Semiconductors, integrated circuits
Revenue	US$1,376 million (2020)[3]
Operating income	US$120.9 million (2020)[3]
Net income	US$84.49 million (2020)[3]
Total assets	US$2,121 million (2020)[3]
Total equity	US$1,654 million (2020)[3]
Number of employees	2,286 (2020)[3]
Parent	Renesas Electronics
Website	renesas.com

Dialog operates a fabless business model, but maintains its own test and physical laboratories in Kirchheim.^[4] Since 2021, the company is a subsidiary of Renesas Electronics.^[5]

History

Dialog Semiconductor was created in May 1985 as IMP (UK) Limited, the European subsidiary of U.S.-based International Microelectric Products, Inc. In late 1989, Daimler-Benz (now Daimler AG) acquired IMP (UK) and folded the business into subsidiary Temic Telefunken Microelectric GmbH. In March 1998, Apax Partners, Adtran, and Ericsson provided funding for the subsidiary (then named Dialogue Semiconductors) to separate from Daimler and form an independent company.^{[6][better source needed]}

Dialog began trading as a public company on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on 18 September 1999.^[7]

In 2005, Jalal Bagherli was appointed as Dialog's CEO.^[8] He had previously been CEO of Alphamosaic, a video processing chip specialist acquired by Broadcom in 2004.^[9]

Since 2007, Dialog Semiconductor has been a supplier of power management integrated circuits (PMICs) for the Apple iPhone, iPad, and Watch. Apple comprised 74% of Dialog's sales in 2016.^[10][11][12]

Acquisitions

Dialog system-on-chip

Dialog has made numerous acquisitions including:

• 2011 - VoIP and wireless chipmaker SiTel Semiconductor for $86.5 million.^[13]
• 2013 - Dialog acquired iWatt Inc, which had filed for an IPO the prior year, for roughly $345 million, paying $310 million in cash and pledging an additional $35 million in contingent considerations.^[14][15]
• 2015 - Dialog made a $4.6 billion offer for Atmel.^[16] This acquisition was cancelled in January 2016 when Atmel instead agreed to be purchased by Microchip for $3.56 billion in cash and stock.^[17] To break the agreement, Atmel paid Dialog a termination fee of $137.3 million.^[18]
• 2017 - Silego Technology, a maker of configurable mixed-signal integrated circuits (CMICs), for $306 million, of which $276 would be paid in cash, with an additional contingent consideration of up to $30.4 million. The deal added consumer electronics companies like Fitbit, Garmin, and GoPro to Dialog's roster of customers.^[19]
• 2018 - Apple announced its intent to purchase part of Dialog's business in a $300 million cash deal.^[20] Included in the deal was the transfer of 300 Dialog employees to Apple, which represented roughly 16% of Dialog's workforce. Apple also committed another $300 million to purchase Dialog products.^[21] In April 2019, Dialog and Apple completed the workforce and intellectual property transfer aspects of the deal.^[22]
• 2019 - Dialog agreed to buy Silicon Motion's FCI mobile communications product line for $45 million. The deal expanded Dialog's range of low-power connected devices by adding FCI's battery-operated Wi-Fi Internet of Things controllers to its existing line of Bluetooth products. The acquisition also added roughly 100 engineers, based in South Korea, to Dialog's workforce.^[23][24]
• 2019 - Dialog agreed to buy Germany’s Creative Chips as part of its push into low-energy connectivity used for devices in the internet of things (IoT). Dialog paid $80 million for the acquisition, with an additional consideration of $23 million based on revenues targets for the next two years.^[25][26]
• 2020 - Dialog bought US-based Adesto Technologies, a provider of application-specific semiconductors and embedded systems for the Industrial IoT, for $500 million.^[27]
• 2021 - In February 2021, Renesas announced that it has agreed to buy Dialog Semiconductor for $5.9 billion.

At that point, Jalal Bagherli held more than 500,000 Dialog shares.^[28]

Products

Dialog sold a range of products, such as PMICs targeted at the automotives and wearable industry,^[29][30] as well as smartphones, with a majority of the revenue in 2018 coming from PMIC sales to Apple.^[31] Dialog also offered Zero Voltage Switching Power Converter Chips and developed DC-DC converter with TDK.^[32][33] IO-Links like the CCE4503, primarily meant for use in IoT-Devices, were also offered alongside LED-Driver,^[34][35] USB power delivery controller^[36] as well as Audio CODECs.^[37] In 2020 Dialog licensed its CBRAM to GlobalFoundries.^[38][39]

References

1. "Board of Directors". Dialog Semiconductor. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
2. "Management Team". Dialog Semiconductor. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
3. "Dialog Semiconductor 2020 Annual Report" (PDF). Dialog Semiconductor. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
4. sysadmin (23 March 2015). "Test and Physical Laboratories". Dialog Semiconductor. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
5. Flaherty, Nick (31 August 2021). "Renesas completes €4.8bn acquisition of Dialog Semiconductor with management change". eeNews Europe. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
6. "Dialog Semiconductor -- SEC Form 20-F". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
7. "IPOs: Calendar - Yahoo Finance". Yahoo finance. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
8. Clarke, Peter. "Dialog's CEO Lays Ambitious Plans". EETimes. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
9. "Electronics industry must side with China in trade war, says Dialog's boss". eeNews Analog. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
10. Auchard, Eric; Wolde, Harro Ten (12 April 2017). "Apple may ditch Dialog, analyst says, hitting chipmaker's shares". Reuters. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
11. Ting-Fang, Cheng (30 November 2017). "Apple to design power chips in-house as early as 2018: Sources". Nikkei Asian Review. Retrieved 12 August 2018.
12. Dahad, Nitin (16 April 2019). "Dialog PMIC Team Now Officially Apple Staff". Eetimes.com. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
13. Manners, David (10 February 2011). "Dialog buys SiTel". Electronics Weekly. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
14. "Xconomy: Dialog Semiconductor Acquires iWatt for $345,000,000". Xconomy. 18 July 2013. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
15. "Dialog Semiconductor Acquires IPO Filer IWatt for Up to $345M". Wall Street Journal. 16 July 2013. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
16. "Dialog Semiconductor to buy U.S. peer Atmel for $4.6 billion". Reuters. 20 September 2015. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
17. Assis, Claudia. "Microchip Technology buys chip maker Atmel in $3.56 billion deal". MarketWatch. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
18. Armental, Maria (14 January 2016). "Dialog Semiconductor Declines to Raise Bid for Atmel". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
19. "Dialog Semiconductor to buy Silego to expand into Internet of Things". Reuters. 5 October 2017. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
20. Byford, Sam (11 October 2018). "Apple buys part of chipmaker Dialog for $300 million". The Verge. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
21. "Apple inks $600M deal to license IP, acquire assets and talent from Dialog to expand chipmaking in Europe". TechCrunch. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
22. "Dialog completes Apple deal with transfer of 300 staff". eeNewsAnalog. 8 April 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
23. GmbH, finanzen net. "Dialog To Buy Silicon Motion's Mobile Communications Business - Quick Facts | Markets Insider". Markets Insider. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
24. "Dialog Semi expands into Internet of Things with Silicon Motion deal". Reuters. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
25. "Dialog Semiconductor acquires Germany's Creative Chips". Reuters. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
26. "Dialog Semiconductor will buy Creative Chips, expanding into industrial IoT". Techeu. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
27. "Dialog snaps up Adesto for $500 million". Omnisperience. 21 February 2020.
28. "Investor Relations | Dialog". 7 February 2024.
29. "Dialog Designs New PMICs to Help Cars Be Smarter, Not Hotter". allaboutcircuits.com. 20 August 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
30. "Dialog powers up PMIC flexibility for mobiles". eetimes.com. 10 February 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
31. "Apple gets critical iPhone technology in $600 million Dialog deal". reuters.com. 11 October 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
32. "Dialog Semiconductor and TDK to Deliver World's Smallest Point of Load DC-DC Converter Solutions". signalintegrityjournal.com. 21 July 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
33. "Dialog Semiconductor Shrinks PSU Size with Zero Voltage Switching". allaboutcircuits.com. 16 July 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
34. "Dialog Semiconductor's IO-Link ICs Bring Connectivity to IIoT Sensors and Actuators". allaboutcircuits.com. 26 February 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
35. "Dialog improves LED dimmer compatibility". electronicsweekly.com. 5 February 2015. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
36. "USB Power Delivery: A New USB Power Delivery 3.0 Controller from Dialog Semiconductor". allaboutcircuits.com. 2 January 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
37. "Dialog Semiconductor Offers Audio Codecs That Negate Loud Noises". electronicdesign.com. 28 May 2019. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
38. "Dialog Semi, GLOBALFOUNDRIES Reach Agreement to License CBRAM Technology". embeddedcomputing.com. 19 October 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
39. "Dialog licenses non-volatile ReRAM technology to Globalfoundries for 22FDX platform". digitimes.com. 20 October 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2024.