Usha, Temic Sign Divorce

The Usha Group has parted ways with Temic Semiconductor, an erstwhile subsidiary of Daimler-Benz, in the 50:50 joint venture for an integrated circuit (IC) design centre in Gurgaon near New Delhi.

According to a senior Temic Semiconductor official in India, the joint venture was called off after Temic's semiconductor unit was acquired by the US-based Vishay Intertechnology from Daimler-Benz recently.

"Both companies _ Usha Group and Temic _ had initially invested around $2 million in this venture which was initiated in 1991 and was involved in design of micro controller peripherals, memories, computer aided design and very large scale integration software development, besides digital signal processing real time application software," the official told Business Standard.

 

The design centre had employed over 40 engineers and, according to the Usha Group, this was the first design centre to be awarded ISO 9001 for IC design.

It is learnt that after Temic Semiconductor pulled out of this venture, Usha Group has since sold this centre to Motorola India.

Temic Semiconductor also operates a production line in alliance with Bharat Electronics in Bangalore which manufactures low-end semiconductors.

"As of this date this venture is going on smoothly and we do not anticipate any problems in this," the official added.

"Ever since Vishay Intertechnology took over the semiconductor business from Temic Telefunken for nearly $500 million, Temic has been reviewing some of its worldwide operations and this decision to pull out of the joint venture with the Usha Group is one its causalities," the official noted.

The $1.1 billion Vishay Intertechnology is one of the pioneers in technology for resistors, capacitors, magnetics and discrete semiconductor, and is also one of the largest US and European manufacturers of passive electronic components and a major producer of discrete semiconductors and power ICs.

Temic Semiconductor consists of two divisions: discrete active components and integrated circuits.

Vishay has announced that it expects to complete its sale of most of the Temic Semiconductor IC division to Atmel Corporation and others shortly.

Vishay and Atmel have reached an in principle agreement under which Atmel and others will pay $140 million for the IC unit, which had sales of approximately $300 million in 1997.