Japanese electronics giant Sony is set to buy Israeli company Altair Semiconductor for $200 million. Established in 2005, and based in Hod Hasharon, the company has raised $135 million to date. The company has 200 employees, most of them in Israel. Altair Semiconductor provides single-mode 4G LTE solutions, and hopes to plan a leading role in the developing Internet of Things (IoT) sector.
The company was founded by former Texas Instruments executives CEO Oded Melamed, CTO Yigal Bitran and VP Marketing Eran Eshed. Each of the founders holds a 0.5% stake in the company and will earn $1 million. The other major investors are Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) (21%), BRM Capital (18%), Bessemer Venture Partners (14%), Giza Venture Capital (13%), and Walden Israel (7%).
Altair declined to comment on the report.
Altair had required massive investment but with the industry in a major period of uncertainty, the stakeholders preferred to sell, bringing in returns of nearly double their investment. Altair has been partnering with Sony for many years as a chip supplier.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 21, 2016
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