The all cash acquisition, which will be accounted for as a purchase transaction, includes fixed payments of approximately $5.8 million and additional contingent earn out payments through 2001 valued at approximately $8.0 million. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Artesyn’s cash earnings net income in 2001.
All Azcore products are intended for use in distributed power architectures in communication applications including computing, mass storage, carrier and enterprise networking, access and wireless infrastructure and fully address the market requirements for low voltage, high efficiency and high operating temperatures. According to Frost & Sullivan Research, the marketplace for these products should grow from $2.8 billion in 2000 to $4.8 billion in 2005. This high demand is fuelled by the growing need for DC-DC converters for Distributed Power Architectures (DPA). Typical applications for Azcore’s designs are mobile base stations, xDSL cards and ATM switches.
Joe O’Donnell, CEO and Chairman of the Board, stated: Azcore’s product range and design team are a perfect fit with Artesyn’s strategy of focusing on standard DC-DC converter design for DPA. The immediate addition of a wide-range portfolio of SMT and High Density half & quarter brick converters complements Artesyn’s existing product range very well.
Azcore’s design staff averages 15 years in high-density converter design and has been widely recognized within the industry as being responsible for some of the most innovative DC-DC converter designs of the past five years. The acquisition of Azcore significantly accelerates the time-to-market and will allow Artesyn to bring to market a fully developed portfolio between now and the end of the year. The products are divided into those suitable for board mounted surface assembly at major OEM customers and high density, high efficiency products, which fit the industry standard half and quarter brick footprints.
Azcore’s SMT products are less than 8.5mm high which makes them ideal to meet the demands of the Japanese marketplace for low profile converters. At 90% efficiency at 3.3V the quarter and half brick packages are breaking industry efficiency barriers across the entire product range. The quarter and half brick package doesn’t require a heat sink for normal operation and has a much higher usable power rating than currently available single board constructions. Azcore’s portfolio of products is the first design that has addressed cycle time – the single biggest issue facing supplier and customers of DC-DC converters today. All Azcore products share 90% common components and topologies. This greatly enhances product availability and revenue ramp up as inventory and component availability constraints are significantly reduced.
