Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. was an American

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

manufacturer. It was created by the divestiture of the Semiconductor Products Sector of

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

in 2004. Freescale focused their

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

products on the automotive, embedded and communications markets. It was bought by a private investor group in 2006, and subsequently merged with NXP Semiconductors in 2015.

History

Divestiture from Motorola and first IPO

As of 2003, Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector earned US$5.0 billion in semiconductor sales in 2002 (out of US$27 billion sales for all of Motorola). Motorola announced that their semiconductor division would be divested on October 6, 2003 and would have a temporary name ''SPS Spinco''. Freescale completed its

Initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO) on July 16, 2004, at a price of US$13. In its announcement, it estimated the stock price to be US$17.50- 19.50 but following a cooling of the market towards tech stocks, it lowered its price to US$13. Existing shareholders of Motorola stock received 0.110415 shares of Freescale stock for every share of Motorola stock as a dividend which was distributed on December 2, 2004.

Buyout

On September 15, 2006, Freescale agreed to accept a buyout for the sum of $17.6 billion ($40 per share) by a consortium led by the Blackstone Group. Share prices of $13 at the July 2004 IPO had risen to $39.35 in afterhours trading that Friday when the news, rumored that week, broke. A special shareholders meeting on November 13, 2006, voted to accept the buyout offer. The purchase, which closed on December 1, 2006, is reportedly the largest private buyout of a technology company and one of the ten largest buyouts of all time.

Second IPO

Freescale filed to go public again on February 11, 2011, and completed its IPO on May 26, 2011. Freescale was traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FSL. At the time of the IPO, the company had $7.6 billion in outstanding debt on its books, and the company was investigated for misconduct related to this IPO.

MH370

On March 8, 2014, Freescale announced that 20 of its employees were lost aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Merger

A merger agreement with NXP Semiconductors was announced in March 2015, to form a billion company. The acquisition closed on December 7, 2015.

Products

Automotive

A MEMS-based

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

accelerometer An accelerometer is a device that measures the proper acceleration of an object. Proper acceleration is the acceleration (the rate of change (mathematics), rate of change of velocity) of the object relative to an observer who is in free fall (tha ...

, an Airbag System Basis Chip as well as a dual-axis SPI inertial sensor designed for use with the PSI5 open standard airbag systems were announced in 2011. A microcontroller meant to be used in anti-lock braking systems as well as electronic power steering applications was released in 2008. Freescale also produced pressure sensors for engine management systems. Freescale's SMARTMOS analog portfolio provides power actuation and multiple switch detect interface family ICs and system basis chips for hybrid vehicles. In November 2008 Freescale announced that the company would collaborate with McLaren Electronic Systems to further develop its KERS system for McLaren's

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

car from 2010 onwards. Both parties believed this collaboration would improve McLaren's KERS system and help the system filter down to road car technology.

Other business units

Besides the MSG (Micro-controller Solutions Group), Freescale's other major semiconductor businesses are the NMG (Networking and Multimedia Group) as well as RASG (RF, Analog and Sensors Group). Freescale, under the guidance of IBM, had also been a source of

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

microprocessors (ICs) for Apple Computer's PowerBooks and

Mac mini Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini) is a small form factor (desktop and motherboard), small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is one of the company's four current Mac (computer), Mac desktop computers, positioned ...

products until the Mac transition to Intel processors in 2006. They joined Power.org in 2006 as a founding member to develop and promote the use of Power Architecture. DragonBall is a low power derivation of the earlier Motorola 68000 family microprocessors. Freescale also has a portfolio of Digital Signal Processor (DSP) products based on StarCore Technology. Freescale's DSPs are being used in Broadband Wireless,

Voice Over IP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

and video infrastructure systems.

Litigation

Freescale was sued by Marvell Semiconductor for infringing seven patents. The case was settled in 2015. Freescale lost a patent infringement lawsuit filed by Tessera Corporation and was forced to pay an undisclosed amount as part of the settlement.Tessera and Freescale Settle Litigation
Business Wire (August 27, 2013). Retrieved on 2019-04-26.

References

External links

2015 Archive of Corporate website
{{Authority control 2004 establishments in Texas 2015 disestablishments in Texas 2015 mergers and acquisitions Blackstone Inc. companies American companies disestablished in 2015 American companies established in 2004 Auto parts suppliers of the United States Automotive companies established in 2004 Computer companies disestablished in 2015 Computer companies established in 2004 Corporate spin-offs Defunct automotive companies of the United States Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Defunct manufacturing companies based in Texas Defunct semiconductor companies of the United States Electronics companies disestablished in 2015 Electronics companies established in 2004 History of Austin, Texas Manufacturing companies based in Austin, Texas Motorola NXP Semiconductors Science and technology in Texas