Recent announcements about restructurings, divestitures, and layoffs by leading semiconductor companies are showing the impact from the wave of merger mania that struck the industry in 2015. What we are not seeing yet are the benefits of those acquisitions. However, one of the large mergers that setoff that wave, NXP and Freescale, appears to doing better than many others. And, the new company will be on display at its annual user conference, NXP FTF Technology Forum in Austin, Texas (May 16-19).
The new NXP (NASDAQ: NXPI) appears to have fared better than others as a result of the acquisition. While some layoffs and restructuring has taken place, NXPs employment has remained relatively constant and their financial results are in line with slower industry growth, but their revenue is positive in automotive (y-y and q-q) where the merged NXP is now the global leader. In addition, the company is now the leader in smart card security identification, NFC, MCUs, RF power transistors, communications processors, and small signal discrete components – all of which fit well into emerging consumer and industrial IoT applications.
[image: NXP]
This year’s FTF should be no different. While details of the new product announcements are withheld until the opening keynote, the company has provided a glimpse into the highlights of this year’s events through conference tracks. Key focus areas will be autonomous vehicles, smart cities, mobile and wearable IoT applications, smart networks and an underlying theme around security. FTF’s agenda reflects some of the hottest topics in the industry right now.
More importantly, however, is that this will be the company’s first corporate event as the new NXP. This will give developers, investors, and the press an opportunity to get a feel for the new company culture and direction. Thus far, the company appears to be on track to achieve the goals that lead to the merger in a rather timely fashion, which is not typical in the semiconductor industry, especially for a deal of this size. Look for more information on the announcements and perspectives from FTF and on the new NXP starting on May 16, 2016.
-- The author and members of the TIRIAS Research staff do not hold equity positions in any of the companies mentioned. TIRIAS Research tracks and consults for NXP and other companies throughout the electronics ecosystem from semiconductors to systems and sensors to the cloud.
