AEG AG is expanding its interests in power semiconductors by taking a 39% stake in Siliconix Inc, Santa Clara, California. AEG will pay $10m for new 1m Siliconix shares, a premium to the market price, and will also buy the 4.2m shares presently held by Westinghouse Electric Corp. AEG also gets one third of the seats on the Siliconix board and a one-year option on further shares for which it agreed to pay $10.5m. The companies will share research and combine their engineering efforts in some products. And AEG gets 10-year multiple options relating to some of Siliconix’ MOSpower and Smartpower technologies, and agrees a framework for long-term volume purchase of some Siliconix products. Siliconix claims a dominant position in small-signal Field-effect transistors and Analogue Switch-Multiplexer circuits.
