Newbury Park, California-based Gigabit Logic Inc is attempting to remedy the difficulties it has had in getting a foothold in the European applications specific integrated circuit market by agreeing to a joint venture with Danish industrial group NKT A/S. The two companies are the major shareholders in a new European company, Giga A/S, which will specialise in ASIC design to a worldwide GaAs market that Gigabit forecasts will grow by at least 45% in the next five years. Gigabit Logic, which specialises in the design and manufacture of Gallium Arsenide integrated circuits, has NKT as one of its main European customers and should eventually make the new Copenhagen-based organisation its European office – manufacturing operations will remain exclusively in the US. Though Gigabit Logic claims to have a 20% share of the world market for merchant GaAs devices off-the-shelf products that come standard and unalterable – the company felt that its offerings lacked overall European support. Military markets should constitute Giga’s main customer base. Gigabit Logic is taking a 20% stake in the venture; the rest is held by a new company, IC Holdings A/S, which will be represented on Gigabit Logic’s board and whose major shareholder is NKT. Other backers include DEC and Cray Research.
