Xcerra Corporation (formerly LTX-Credence Corporation) was an American semiconductor
Automatic Test Equipment
Automatic test equipment or automated test equipment (ATE) is any apparatus that performs tests on a device, known as the device under test (DUT), equipment under test (EUT) or unit under test (UUT), using automation to quickly perform measure ...
(ATE) vendor, founded in 1976 in (co-founder) Sol Max's basement, later moving to the Balco building in Newton & GTE building 3 in Needham, then the KLH building on University Ave. in Westwood and currently headquartered on University Ave. in
Norwood, Massachusetts
Norwood is a town and census-designated place in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Norwood is part of the Greater Boston area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 31,611. The town was named after Norwood, England. Norwood is ...
(Greater
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
area).
The focus of the company was the design and development of ATE for the
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 ...
marketplace, but it distinguished itself in the early days as a provider of functional and parametric testers for discrete component RF products. LTX offered test platforms capable of testing mixed signal (analog & digital) devices.
History
LTX was founded by Graham Miller, Dick Boltrus, Sol Max, Phil Perkins, Bill Kerr, (future CEO & COB) Roger Blethen, Bob Valentine and Mary Parent. Joined later by 1st employee Dave Windsor and a slew of Northeastern Co-op Students. All of the founders left nearby competitor,
Teradyne
Teradyne, Inc. is an American automatic test equipment (ATE) designer and manufacturer based in North Reading, Massachusetts. Its high-profile customers include Samsung, Qualcomm, Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments and IBM.
History
T ...
. Although never verified, corporate lore holds that the name LTX was an abbreviation for the clarion call of its founders: "Leave Teradyne by Christmas (Xmas)" or possibly "Left Teradyne at Christmas." Others believe that LTX stands for "Linear Test eXcellence", "Linear Test eXperts", or is simply an abbreviation of the word "Electronics".
On June 22, 2008, LTX signed a merger agreement with one of its principal competitors:
Credence Systems Corporation. LTX CEO and President David Tacelli became CEO of the merged company.
On August 29, 2008, LTX and
Credence Systems Corporation completed a merger to form
LTX-Credence Corporation.
Xcerra Corporation was formed in 2014 following the LTX-Credence acquisition of Everett Charles Technologies (ECT) and Multitest from Dover Corporation in December 2013. Xcerra Corporation is the parent company of four brands that have been supplying innovative products and services to the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industry for more than 30 years. Xcerra's four brands are atg-Luther & Maelzer, Everett Charles Technologies, LTX-Credence, and Multitest.
Unic Capital Management, an affiliate of Chinese private equity fund
Sino IC Capital, announced plans to purchase Xcerra in April 2017 for approximately $580 million. However, in February 2018 Xcerra terminated the deal due to difficulties securing approval from the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which oversees deals with the potential for national-security concerns.
[Aisha Al-Muslim]
"Xcerra Calls Off $580 Million Deal Amid Scrutiny,"
''The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'', February 22, 2018.
In October 2018, Cohu, Inc. completed its acquisition of Xcerra Corporation.
Cohu Completes Acquisition of Xcerra
Oct. 01, 2018
External links
Company homepage
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ltx
Equipment semiconductor companies