In the first quarter of 2024 alone, Renesas acquired two semiconductor manufacturers! After acquiring gallium nitride supplier Transphorm in January, Renesas acquired PCB software provider Altium for AUD 9.1 billion (approximately RMB 42.7 billion) in February. 

On February 15th, Japanese chip manufacturer Renesas Electronics announced its agreement to acquire Altium, a leading software manufacturer for printed circuit board (PCB) electronic design systems, for AUD 9.1 billion. This is the largest acquisition of an Australian listed company by a Japanese buyer to date.

Renesas Electronics announced in a statement that it will acquire all issued shares of Altium at a cash price of AUD 68.50 per share. The transaction has received unanimous approval from the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2024. Altium, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics, will continue to be led by Aram Mirkazemi, the company's CEO. Renesas Electronics stated that this transaction still requires approval from Altium shareholders and an Australian court. 

Altium was founded in 1985 and is the world's first PCB design tool supplier. Altium is headquartered in San Diego, California, USA and is listed in Australia. Last year (as of June 30, 2023), the revenue was $263 million. According to foreign media reports, American company Autodesk announced plans to acquire Altium for AUD 5.25 billion in 2021. But Altium rejected the offer at the time, citing a low price. 

Renesas Electronics has been collaborating with Altium, and Altium's PCB design software has added Altium 365, the world's first digital platform for designing and implementing electronic hardware, achieving seamless collaboration throughout the entire PCB design process. In June 2023, Renesas Electronics announced the standardized development of all PCB designs on Altium's Altium 365 cloud platform. Publish the ECAD library of all its products to Altium Public Vault. With the manufacturer parts search and other functions on Altium365, customers can directly select Renesas electronic parts from the Altium library to accelerate the time to market. This acquisition combines Altium's advanced cloud platform capabilities with Renesas' powerful embedded solutions, combining high-performance processors, analog, power, and connectivity. This merger will also enable integration with third-party vendors throughout the entire ecosystem, allowing for seamless execution of all electronic design steps on the cloud. 

In addition, this is also Renesas' second recent acquisition. The previous acquisition was in January, with plans to acquire gallium nitride supplier Transphorm for $339 million. The transaction is also expected to be completed in the second half of 2024. 

According to Renesas' latest financial report, in the fiscal year 2023, Renesas Electronics' revenue was 1.4694 trillion yen, approximately 9.8 billion US dollars, and its operating profit was 390.8 billion yen, approximately 2.6 billion US dollars.

Renesas stated that there will be strong demand for AI related products in 2024, stable demand for automobiles, and the PC market has reached the bottom of the cycle, but industrial inventory adjustments will continue until the second half of the year. 

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