TowerJazz expands capabilities – acquires Maxim's Texas wafer plant

The addition of the Maxim facility will expand TowerJazz's current manufacturing capacity, cost-effectively increasing production by about 28'000 wafers per month. he availability of additional capacity is expected to be needed to serve the company's current and forecasted customer demand. The two companies expect to close the transaction in January 2016, subject to customary closing conditions. As part of the transaction, the companies have also signed a long-term supply agreement for TowerJazz to manufacture products for Maxim in the San Antonio facility. The transaction is to be paid with TSEM ordinary shares with a total value of approximately USD 40 million. “We are very excited about this fab purchase. It will provide a quick solution for our significantly growing customer demand, while gaining additional high quality manufacturing capabilities and global flexibility with the incremental capacity,” said Dr. Itzhak Edrei, TowerJazz’s President. “The multi-year supply agreement with Maxim and the new available capacity will enable continuous growth with increased manufacturing scale to support our position as the worldwide leading specialty analog foundry.” All of the site’s nearly 500 employees will be retained. The headcount consists of production operators, production support personnel and process and integration engineers. “We needed a trusted partner to manage our proprietary process technology who also shared our commitment to the employees in San Antonio. Tower Jazz has a proven track record with Maxim and similar beliefs about employees, so this is a natural fit. I look forward to our continued partnership over the coming years,” said Vivek Jain, Senior Vice President of Maxim Integrated’s Technology and Manufacturing Group.