On August 1, 2024, Renesas Electronics and Altium Limited (" Altium "), a global leader in electronic design systems, announced that # Renesas Electronics has successfully completed the acquisition of Altium #. Renesas announced a definitive agreement to acquire Altium for A $9.1 billion (approximately US $5.9 billion) on February 15, 2024.

The merger sets the stage for Renesas and Altium to create an innovative electronic system design and lifecycle management platform. The platform will enable the integration and standardization of various electronic design data and functions, and enhance component lifecycle management, while enabling seamless digital iteration of the design process to improve overall productivity. This greatly speeds up innovation and lowers the barriers to entry for system designers by reducing development resources and inefficiencies.

Hidetoshi Shibata, CEO of Renesas Electronics, said: "This is a historic milestone for both Renesas Electronics and Altium as we take another important step forward in bringing enhanced user experiences to electronic system designers. "Our goal is to jointly build an integrated and open electronic systems design and lifecycle management platform that will enable any business, regardless of its size or industry, to reach a broader market." "I want to reiterate our commitment to maintaining data security and compliance for Altium's customers, which will continue to be our top priority." "With the addition of Altium design software and cloud platform capabilities, we are excited to work with Aram and its industry-leading and talented software engineering team to transform the future of electronic systems design."

With the completion of the transaction, Altium is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics. Aram Mirkazemi, CEO of Altium, serves as Senior Vice President and Head of Software and Digitalization at Renesas Electronics. He also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Altium.

Altium's history began in Australia in 1985 as one of the world's earliest providers of printed circuit board (PCB) design tools. The company has grown to become a global market leader with the most popular PCB software tools available today. Its software tools enable PCB designers, parts suppliers and manufacturers to connect them to develop and manufacture electronics faster and more efficiently. Altium's PCB design software adds Altium 365, the world's first digital platform for designing and implementing electronic hardware, enabling seamless collaboration throughout the PCB design process.

In June 2023, Renesas Electronics announced the standardized development of all PCB designs on Altium's Altium 365 cloud platform. Renesas Electronics has been working with Altium to publish the ECAD library for all its products to the Altium Public Vault. With features such as manufacturer parts search on Altium365, customers can select Renesas electronic parts directly from the Altium library for faster time-to-market.

AltuimDesign, as a simple and easy to start tool, is a design software commonly used by many engineers. In addition to its functions, AD is also famous among engineers for its lawyer's letter. For a variety of compelling reasons, many engineers accidentally come into contact with pirated AD software, followed by similar legal letters.

Now that Altuim has boarded Renesas's ship, under the protection of the father of the patron, will the strategy of issuing lawyers' letters be adjusted?

Renesas acquisition history:

** April 2010 ** : Renesas Electronics was established by integrating NEC Electronics (established in November 2002 as a spin-off of NEC's semiconductor business, excluding the DRAM business) and Renesas Technology (established on April 1, 2003 as a non-DRAM chip joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi). 55% and 45%) to begin operations. The integration made it the fourth-largest semiconductor company by revenue at the time.

** December 2010 ** : Renesas Mobile Corporation (RMC) is created by integrating Renesas' mobile multimedia business unit with the acquired Nokia Wireless modem business unit.

** January 2013 ** : Renesas transfers part of its back-end factory to J-Devices.

** September 2013 ** : Broadcom acquires majority stake in Renesas Mobile Communications. At the same time, with the completion of the allocation of third-party shares to nine investors, INCJ became Renesas's largest shareholder.

** September 2016 ** : Renesas announces acquisition of Intersil for $3.2 billion. The acquisition of Intersil, an American analog chip manufacturer, was completed in February 2017. With this acquisition, Renesas expands its market presence in PMIC power management, particularly in extending battery life.

** September 2018 ** : Renesas agreed to acquire Integrated Device Technology (IDT) for $6.7 billion. Following the acquisition in March 2019, Renesas acquired IDT's technologies in RF, high-performance timing, memory interface, real-time interconnect, optical interconnect, wireless power, and smart sensors to complement its own microcontrollers, systems on chip, and power management chips acquired through the acquisition of Intersil. It further consolidated its position in markets such as automotive, industrial/iot and data center/communications infrastructure, entered more areas such as communications, computing, consumer and industrial, and expanded its business opportunities in fast-growing markets such as iot, 5G and industrial.

** February 2021 ** : Renesas announces acquisition of Dialog Semiconductor for $5.9 billion. Dialog is a semiconductor supplier to Apple with expertise in low power and mixed signal, including battery and power management, power conversion, CMIC, LED drivers, custom mixed signal ics and automotive PMIC, wireless charging technology, and offers a broad and differentiated BLE, WiFi and SoC. Advanced connectivity for a wide range of applications. The acquisition was completed in August 2021.

** May 2022 ** : Renesas announces the reopening of the "Jia Fu" Fab, which will manufacture power semiconductors using a 300mm process and is scheduled to come online in 2024.

** June 2022 ** : Renesas completes acquisition of Panthronics AG, an Austrian fabless semiconductor company focused on high performance wireless products.

** July 2022 ** : Renesas completes the evaluation of Reality Analytics, Inc. To add more resources to machine learning and artificial intelligence.

** September 2022 ** : Renesas acquires Steradian Semiconductors Private Limited, a fabless semiconductor company; In the same month, Renesas signed a strategic partnership with Vietnam's VinFast, announcing an expansion of cooperation in electric vehicle technology development and delivery of system components.

** December 2022 ** : Renesas wins "Outstanding Asia Pacific Semiconductor Company Award" in 2022.

** June 2023 ** : Renesas completes the acquisition of Panthronics AG, an Austrian fabless semiconductor company focused on high-performance wireless products.

** July 2023 ** : Renesas announces a 10-year silicon carbide wafer supply agreement with Wolfspeed.

** January 2024 ** : Renesas agreed to acquire Transphorm, a manufacturer of gallium nitride chips, for $339 million, an acquisition that will give Renesas access to its own GaN technology and further expand its business to target multiple high-growth markets such as electric vehicles, computing (data center, artificial intelligence, infrastructure), renewable energy, and industrial power conversion.

** February 2024 ** : Renesas announced an agreement to acquire Altium, a printed circuit board design software company, for $5.9 billion. The acquisition will significantly enhance Renesas' capabilities in software development, providing customers with integrated software and hardware solutions to help them grow in key areas such as automotive, industrial and the Internet of Things.