After a slow start, Analog Devices’ agreement to buy Maxim and Nvidia’s deal to acquire ARM raise the total value of M&A deals this year to more than $63.0 billion.
Two huge purchase agreements in July and September have guaranteed that 2020 will become at least the second-largest year in history for semiconductor merger and acquisition announcements, according to data released in the September Update to IC Insights’ 2020 McClean Report, (Figure 1). In the first nine months of 2020, the combined value of semiconductor M&A agreements climbed to $63.1 billion, thanks to Nvidia’s $40 billion deal in September to acquire processor-design technology supplier ARM in the U.K. from SoftBank and Analog Devices’ $21 billion announcement in July to buy analog/mixed-signal IC maker Maxim Integrated Products in Silicon Valley. These two megadeals account for about 97% of the M&A dollar value in 2020.
Figure 1
