LSI Corp, under siege in the competitive world of chip manufacture, has acquired Mint Technology Inc for an undisclosed sum as an independent engineering arm. The Billerica, Massachusetts company is an engineering consultancy specializing in the specification and implementation of application specific integrated circuits and high-density field-programmable gate arrays, and has built its own set of design tools, called Design Environment Software. Mint claims an average 240% annual revenue growth over the past three years. That’s good news for Milpitas, California-based LSI, which reported weaker-than-expected second- quarter earnings last week, blaming slow chip sales for its static results (CI 3,209). Net income was $46.8m, 32 cents a share, compared with $46.5m, or 34 cents, last time, and Zacks Investment Research said that Wall Street expected 33 cents a share. Revenues rose by only 2% to $332m from $325.4m. The chip industry is still recovering from a glut, and this acquisition might compensate by beefing up the company’s engineering expertise.
