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Intel expands Israel presence
with $5.4B Tower acquisition
SANTA CLARA, Calif.,— Intel says it
will acquire Tower Semiconductor,
Migdal Haemek, Israel, for $53/share
with a total enterprise value of about
$5.4 billion.
Intel has been in Israel since 1974
Intel has operated the Israel Development
Centre (IDC) in the country since 1974. It
has expanded to four locations and is sited
in Haifa, Jerusalem, Qiryat Gat, and Petach
Tikva. The IDC was the company’s first
design center outside the U.S.
In addition, Intel operates two fabs in the
country. The oldest was Fab 8 in Jerusa-
lem, opened in 1985 and since closed and
converted to Fab 28. Fab 18, opened in
1999 is in Kiryat Gat and uses a 90nm
process to produce CPUs.
In 2018, Intel was responsible for 7.5% of
Israel’s exports. The company says it em-
ploys more than 12,000 in the country.
Advanced analog circuits
Tower manufactures advanced analog cir-
cuits in three fabs. Two are in Migdal Hae-
mek (150mm and 200mm); two 200mm
are in the U.S. in Newport Beach, Calif.
and San Antonio, Texas; and three are in
Japan in partnership with Panasonic.
The company produces power manage-
ment chips, mixed-signal CMOS and CMOS
image sensors.
Tower began with the 1993 acquistion of
National Semiconductor’s 150mm fab in
Migdal Haemek and became a public com-
pany in 1994. In January 2001, the com-
pany built a second fab (200mm) on its
current site.
In September 2008, Tower acquired Jazz
MARCH 2022
Tower operates two fabs (150mm and 200mm) at its Migdal Hae-
mek location. (Tower)
Semiconductor in a stock-for-stock trans-
action, according to Wikipedia, and be-
came “TowerJazz” in 2009. It dropped
“Jazz” from its identity in March 2020.
Acquired Micron’s Japanese fab
In June 2011, TowerJazz bought Micron
Technology’s wafer fab in Nishiwaki City,
Hyogo, Japan.
In April 2014, Tower formed a joint ven-
ture with Panasonic in Japan, consisting
of three fabs. After the joint venture, it
closed the Hyogo facility.
Buys MIP for $40 million in Texas
In February 2016, Tower acquired a
200mm fab in San Antonio, Texas from
Maxim Integrated Products for $40 million.
Then, in August 2017, Tower and Tacoma
(Nanjing) Semiconductor Technology Co.
Ltd announced a partnership to build a
wafer fab in China. On June 22, however,
the Chinese company entered bankruptcy,
ending the proposed China joint venture..
This February 17, Tower reported its
fourth quarter 2021 and full year finan-
cials.
For the year, the company reported rev-
enue of $1.5 billion, with net profit of $150
million and EPS of $1.37 diluted. For
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