Austrian chip maker Austria Mikro Systeme International AG – which started life as the European end of Gould Inc’s American Microsystems Inc, has taken control of Thesys Gesellschaft fr Mikroelektronik mbH, the Erfurt company in the former German Democratic Republic that was once the semiconductor arm of VEB Kombinat Robotron, later separated as VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik. It is evidently buying the 19.8% stake held by LSI Logic Corp because it told Reuter that We took over the whole structure – our concept is to clone. We will run Thesys as partner of Austria Mikro, without revealing any financial data. The company is currently capitalised at about $3m but that will be raised to $5.7m, and Austria Mikro will hold 51.25% while majority shareholder the land – state – of Thringia will retain the other 48.57%. Thesys produces application-specific integrated circuits on 6 wafers, and reported a loss of $32m on turnover of just less than that in 1994. It expects to break even in 1996. Thesys claims to develop a new part every other day, and Austrian Mikro will transfer technology and ASIC design skills.
