Murata, Japan, announced on August 22 that it would acquire Peregrine semiconductor, a US electronics manufacturer. Peregrine is a world-renowned manufacturer of high-speed communication features for smart phones, with an acquisition amount of 470 million US dollars. There seems to be a growing trend among the manufacturers of smart phone electronic components to improve their competitiveness by purchasing more products. Peregrine is listed on NASDAQ in the United States, with sales of $200 million in fiscal year 2013 (as of December 2013). The company's main product is the electronic components that are converted into digital signals after receiving and transmitting electric waves. Murata has offered a purchase price of $12.50 per share. If it gets the support of more than half of the shareholders at Peregrine's extraordinary general meeting, the acquisition will be completed as early as this year.
At present, for Peregrine, Murata is the largest supplier of its products. Through the acquisition, Murata turned the electronic components used to send and receive signals into internal production to provide a package of goods to apple in the United States and Samsung Electronics in South Korea.
Through the acquisition, Murata will be able to easily meet the requirements of manufacturers for high performance, and improve competitiveness in the development of new generation components supporting high-speed communication services. This spring, American company acquired Panasonic's electronic components business for communication, aiming to provide more kinds of components in a package.
In terms of large Japanese electronic component manufacturers, TDK and alpine electric are developing rapidly in smartphone related businesses. The competition with American and Korean enterprises is also increasingly fierce. In order to enhance the development ability, the trend of M & A is increasing.
In 2013 (as of March 2014), the consolidated sales of Murata Production Co., Ltd. increased by 24% year-on-year to 846.7 billion yen, and the operating profit was 2.1 times of the previous financial year, reaching 125.9 billion yen. Among them, communication oriented business accounts for more than half of the total sales, which plays a driving role in the expansion of revenue. In particular, some parts of the smartphone's signal receiving and sending related businesses account for about 40% of the global market share. Through the acquisition, the company will also capture the fast-growing demand of emerging economies and other places.