TI to buy National Semi for $6.5 billion

Texas Instruments Inc. signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire National Semiconductor Corp. for $6.5 billion in cash, the company said Monday (April 4).

“This acquisition is about strength and growth,” said Rich Templeton, TI’s chairman, president and CEO, said in a statement. Templeton said TI believes it can accelerate growth of National’s products with its considerably larger sales force.

The deal, which remains subject to regulatory review and the approval of National’s shareholders, would bring together two of the longest-running semiconductor companies and two of the largest vendors of analog chips. TI, founded in 1947, is the No. 1 vendor of analog chips. National, founded in 1959, accounted for about 3 percent of the $42 billion overall analog IC market in 2010.

The merger of two companies, who despite being 50+ years old have continued to innovate, will prove quite interesting in the days to come, not just for analog but the semiconductor market as a whole.